13 emaciated and ill bears rescued from bile farms

SHOTLIST 1. Volunteers opening truck full of bears 2. Close of injured bear with ringworm type infection on head 3. Vet conducting preliminary check-up on bears in cages 4. Low shot of bear in cage being unloaded off truck 5. Cutaway of volunteers unloading bear in cage 6. Close-up of sick bear being fed fruit 7. Wide of founder of Animals Asia, Jill Robinson feeding sick bear 8. Close-up of injured bear's bloody paw 9. Wide of volunteers in holding area 10. Close-up of sick bear lying in cage 11. Wide of veterinary nurse, Hayley Walters, tending to sick bear 12. SOUNDBITE (English) Hayley Walters, Veterinary Nurse: "For something as magnificent as a moon bear to be crushed and contained within horrific cages like these, absolute sadness and then relief that they have come to us and that they are safe at last and they've come home. I'm getting quite upset talking about them." 13. Close-up of Hayley Walters wiping away tears 14. Wide of vets and nurses performing operation on bear that was later euthanised 15. Close-up low angle of bear's head with tube sticking out of its mouth 16. Close-up of inflamed wound where bile was extracted 17. Close-up of needle being injected into bear 18. Wide of veterinary surgeon Heather Bacon extracting abscess fluid in syringe from bear's body as other vets shave fur from wound 19. Close-up of syringe with fluid 20. SOUNDBITE (English) Heather Bacon, Veterinary Surgeon: "I suspect that he's probably got liver tumours or liver failure at least. He's got a lot of fluid building underneath his skin and also in his abdomen which is why it's so swollen." 21. Wide of bears that had been rescued living in sanctuary 22. Close-up of two bears playing 23. Bear sitting upright 24. Wide of Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia feeding Franzi, an adult dwarf bear due to its confinement in a tiny cage 25. Close-up of Jill's face 26. Close-up of Franzi's declawed paw 27. SOUNDBITE (English) Jill Robinson, Founder and CEO, Animals Asia Foundation: "Bear farming is a cruel and unnecessary industry. No-one is going to die from the lack of bear bile and in fact the contaminated bile that we are seeing in these bears could be responsible for some serious problems to human health now because our bears are dying of liver cancer. So I think the Chinese government can honestly look at this with a fresh eye and see what we are seeing." 28. Tilt-down of Animals Asia flag to tiny bear cage that Franzi was in 29. Low angle shot of cage in exhibition centre 30. STILL of infected bear wound 31. STILL of bowl of bear bile 32. Walters in association's exhibition centre holding up metal jacket which was used on bears to harvest their bile 33. Close-up of catheter on metal jacket 34. SOUNDBITE (English) Hayley Walters, Veterinary Nurse: "The most inhumane is the full metal jacket which two of our bears have come in wearing. They are very very heavy like medieval torture devices and these would be strapped to the bear its whole life while still inside a cage." 35. Two disfigured bears playing in sanctuary 36. Various of bear limping, one leg severed STORYLINE Aid workers rescued 13 sick and injured bears in China's Sichuan province which were being reared in state approved farms for the harvest of their bile. Bear bile is known in China and parts of Asia for its medicinal properties and is often used in traditional Chinese medicine. Bear farming is legal in China and an estimated seven thousand bears are kept in 480 bile harvesting farms. Nicknamed moon bears for their crescent shaped marking on their chests, the bears were sent to a rescue centre in the suburbs of Chengdu run by Hong Kong-based, Animals Asia. It eventually was euthanised. Keyword animals You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d48bfd46461e9a7d2f59769651ca61f9 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork