FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Across Southeast Asia land grabbing has become an enormous issue. In Vietnam, a showdown is looming between animal rights activists and the government, which is planning to evict a wildlife sanctuary from a national park used to house bears rescued from illegal bile farms.

Practitioners of traditional Asian medicine claim bear bile is effective as an anti-inflammatory in the treatment of fever and can improve eyesight while healing an assortment of ailments. The practice is barbaric with the bile harvested through a catheter or a needle which is inserted into the bile duct of the bear held captive in small cages often for years at a time.

Read more in The Diplomat.