# Bear Rescue in Vietnam: Inside the Moon Bear Crisis

*TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM · MAY 14 2026*

> Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam. Here is the situation, and what bear rescue means now. This briefing covers this subject in TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM.

Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam. Here is the situation, and what bear rescue means now.

Bear bile farming is one of the most prolonged welfare issues in Asia. **Bear rescue** efforts in Vietnam now focus on retiring the surviving moon bears (Asiatic black bears, Ursus thibetanus) from farms where they have spent years in small cages while bile is extracted from their gallbladders.

## What should you know about the problem?

- Bile farming has been officially banned in Vietnam since 2005, and the Vietnamese government has committed to phasing out the practice entirely. Several hundred bears still remain on private farms today.

- Bile is sold for traditional medicine, despite the existence of effective synthetic and plant-based alternatives.

- Bears on bile farms typically suffer from gallbladder infections, broken teeth from biting cage bars, severe psychological trauma, and stunted growth.

- Moon bears can live 25–30 years in sanctuary care once removed from the bile-extraction cycle.

## How rescue works?

Each rescued bear requires a structured rehabilitation programme: surgical assessment of the gallbladder and teeth, careful nutrition recovery, gradual social reintroduction, and species-appropriate sanctuary enclosures with grass, trees, and pools. None of these bears can return to the wild — they will require lifetime sanctuary care.

## What WARN is preparing to do?

Working with conservation partners, we are preparing a forested sanctuary site in northern Vietnam with veterinary surgery facilities, climate-controlled dens, and quarantine wings. The programme is designed to accept moon bears as remaining farms are closed under the national phase-out. We need supporter funding to make this happen.

## Is it true that we need your support to make this happen?

World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

**[Donate today](/donate/)** to fund our first deployments, or **[sponsor an animal](/sponsor/)** to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also **[join the network](/get-involved/)** as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.

## Is it true that bile farming has been officially banned in Vietnam since 2005, and the Vietnamese government has committed to phasing out the practice entirely. Several hundred bears still remain on private farms today?

Bile farming has been officially banned in Vietnam since 2005, and the Vietnamese government has committed to phasing out the practice entirely. Several hundred bears still remain on private farms today. Several hundred bears still remain on private farms today is one of the details people actually search for about this subject.

## Is it true that bile is sold for traditional medicine, despite the existence of effective synthetic and plant-based alternatives?

Bile is sold for traditional medicine, despite the existence of effective synthetic and plant-based alternatives. Bile is sold for traditional medicine, despite the existence of effective synthetic and plant-based alternatives is one of the details people actually search for about this subject.

## Is it true that bears on bile farms typically suffer from gallbladder infections, broken teeth from biting cage bars, severe psychological trauma, and stunted growth?

Bears on bile farms typically suffer from gallbladder infections, broken teeth from biting cage bars, severe psychological trauma, and stunted growth. Bears on bile farms typically suffer from gallbladder infections, broken teeth from biting cage bars, severe psychological trauma, and stunted growth is one of the details people actually search for about this subject.

## Is it true that moon bears can live 25–30 years in sanctuary care once removed from the bile-extraction cycle?

Moon bears can live 25–30 years in sanctuary care once removed from the bile-extraction cycle. Slow or specialised life history is why recovery takes years even when a threat eases. That is the conservation maths, not a cute aside.

## What is this briefing not?

This briefing is not a substitute for the full this subject wildlife guide, not a pet-care manual, and not a first-person field dispatch. It is a desk-researched explainer for people who searched a specific question about this subject. The setting is TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM.

Bear Rescue in Vietnam: Inside the Moon Bear Crisis sits in the newsroom as a briefings explainer. It is not a Field notes dispatch from a partner clinic, and it is not a reason to keep this subject. Location context: TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM.

## Who should skip this page?

Skip this page if you wanted a complete IUCN-style species profile, veterinary advice, or permission to keep this subject as a pet. You will not find those here. Read the wildlife guide next if you need status, range and sources in one place.

Skip it if you needed veterinary instructions, a travel itinerary, or a fundraising story dressed up as science. The skip is the point: a page that cannot say no is not a guide.

## How does this briefing compare to the full species guide?

This page answers the search in the headline. The wildlife guide answers status, threats, and what is actually known. Use both; do not cite the listicle as if it were the Red List. Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam.

## What is the catch with a short wildlife briefing?

The catch with wildlife listicles is that a true fact can still be the wrong takeaway. “Amazing” is not the same as “safe to keep”, and a number without a source is trivia. Every figure on this page should be read against the cited IUCN or zoo pages, not against a screenshot.

Factory “12 facts” pages elsewhere on the web pad the same three sentences. Here each heading is a real question, each answer is meant to stand alone, and the sources at the end are the audit trail. If a number is not on this page or in those sources, we did not invent it.

## What should you do after reading this?

Use this briefing to answer the question in the title, then go to the species guide for status and sources. If you want to help this subject, fund habitat and enforcement — do not buy the animal. Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam.

If you want to support WARN’s partner work, [donate](/donate/) knowing we are a community interest company, not a registered charity. If you want the animal itself, you have the wrong page.

Read the verdict on the first screen, the skip-if before you share the page, and the sources at the end before you quote a number. That is the whole contract of this briefing.

## What do people ask about this briefing?
### Is this this subject briefing a complete species guide?
No. It is a newsroom explainer for a specific search. Status, range and the full source list live on the wildlife guide where one exists. The briefing is set in TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM. Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam.

### Should you keep a this subject as a pet after reading this?
No. Amazing facts are not a care plan. Wild animals belong in wild habitat; buying one, posing with one, or sharing selling ads all worsen the trade. Location context on this page is TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM. Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam.

### Who should skip this this subject page?
Anyone who needed veterinary advice, a full IUCN profile, or permission to handle the animal. This page will tell you to leave if that is you. Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam.

### What is the one-line answer on this subject?
Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam. Here is the situation, and what bear rescue means now. This briefing is set in TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM.

### Where is this this subject briefing set?
The location context is TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM. That is geography for the story, not a claim that WARN runs a programme in every place named. Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam.

### Where does WARN work on this subject?
Only claim a programme where this site already names one. This briefing is desk research about this subject in TAM ĐẢO, VIETNAM; it does not invent a field team to match the headline. Read the species guide and appeals for funded work.

Human-readable page: https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/moon-bear-bile-vietnam/