Laos: sixteen Asiatic black bears, an endangered species, rescued in one day

After discovering the small mammals in the house, the NGO managed to place them in a shelter.

Ten males and six females aged between two and four months weighed between 1.3 and 4 kg. Sixteen endangered Asiatic black bear cubs were discovered in a house in Laos and placed in a shelter earlier this week.

According to the non-governmental organization Free the Bears, this is the largest rescue carried out in one day since the beginning of the year by the association, which is based in Australia. This animal species is on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The largest confiscation and rescue of endangered bear cubs in the world (Laos), SUCCESS! 16 endangered cubs are now in our care (and another 2 came from another confiscation today). Our team is barely making it, we need your help. Please be a bear

Sixteen cubs were being raised in a house in the capital, Vientiane, where the organization found the seventeen dead. “When we arrived at this house, there were teddy bears everywhere”an NGO official said. “Cubs of this size are extremely vulnerable. In the wild, their mothers would never leave them. We believe they were killed by poachers,” he added.

Cubs placed in a shelter

The small mammals were taken to a shelter in Luang Prabang, about 300 km north of Vientiane. The Laotian was taken into police custody, according to the NGO. Lao police, who are continuing to search for the owners of the house, were alerted after a neighbor heard one of the cubs screaming.

In Asia, especially China, thousands of bears are immobilized in narrow cages, their bellies perforated with a catheter or fistula attached to the gallbladder to collect bile. It is sold at a high price for its many therapeutic properties, which are often falsely attributed to it. It is believed to help regulate cholesterol or dissolve gallstones and kidney stones. Laos has banned the practice, but despite this, the lucrative trade persists.