The Quang Ninh Forest Protection Department has confirmed that eight bears have died at a single bear farm in the province in the last month.

The circumstances surrounding their deaths have led to a number of questions regarding their care and the official response.

This is not the bear farm that Animals Asia is targeting in its Save the Halong Bay Bears campaign. This is a smaller farm around 2 kilometres away, which Animals Asia visited as part of an investigation of three farms in the area.

Following the Animals Asia inspection in November last year, a veterinary report was sent to both the central and the Quang Ninh provincial Forest Protection Department on November 27.

In a little more than a month since Animals Asia were able to inspect conditions at the facility, however, local authorities have confirmed that eight of the bears have died, leaving just one bear alive.

It is believed that four of the bears died on a single day sometime during the week beginning January 5.

Animals Asia Vietnam Directo,r Tuan Bendixsen, said:

"When we visited, the condition of the bears was far from critical so it is extremely unusual that eight of them are dead and that four are said to have died on the same day."

When microchipped bears die, government protocol stipulates a clear course of action. An autopsy must be carried out to confirm the causes of death and the provincial Forest Protection Department must oversee the burial of the corpses in a specified area to ensure body parts are not sold on the black market.

Tuan Bendixsen added:

"We are not aware that the required reports have been completed. What were the causes of death? Where are the bodies? Where are the microchips which these bears were legally required to have? There are too many unanswered questions here which require the urgent attention of the Ministry of Rural Development. The only way to know for sure is for them to come to Quang Ninh province and produce the answers."

Animals Asia founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, added:

"This is so, so sad. When bears are no longer profitable there is always the fear that they will be illegally slaughtered and their parts sold for traditional medicine.

"When we inspected this farm in November, we made a very public offer in front of local officials and media to take the bears to our bear rescue centre in Tam Dao. These bears could have been saved."

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