Couple says Korean doctor prescribed bear gall bladder
Bile treats cancer, sagging libido

Matthew Ramsey, The Province
Published: Wednesday, August 02, 2006

A Burnaby couple has been ordered to pay $6,000 and forfeit their hunting gear after killing two bears and removing their gall bladders on advice from a doctor in Korea.

Kwang Ho Yoon, 52, and his wife, Myung Soon Yoon, 49, appeared in Vancouver Provincial Court yesterday.

Court heard that the Yoons were checked at a roadblock near Campbell River on May 25. RCMP and conservation officers found a black bear gall bladder in a cooler in their vehicle.

Kwang Yoon, a self-employed burglary alarm system salesman, subsequently admitted to shooting the bear and another bear a few weeks earlier.

The couple went into the woods with a rifle and hunting equipment after a doctor in Korea told them the bile from the bear organ was the best cure for what was ailing Myung, said defence lawyer Brian Mickelson.

"The doctor in Korea advised them it would be helpful," said Mickelson. Details of her ailments were not revealed.

Bile from the organs is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cancer, burns, eye pain, liver damage and sagging libido.

Mickelson argued, and Crown counsel agreed, that the galls harvested by the Yoons were for personal use and not for sale.

Fresh, or "green," bear gall bladders can fetch anywhere from $50 to $100. The dried organs can sell for $750 to $1,200, depending on their size and the market's supply and demand, said Bill Bresser, manager of operations at the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.

In Asia, where demand is highest, a gall can sell for as much as $45,000 US.

It's not illegal to shoot a bear if you have a licence, said Bresser. It is illegal, however, to remove the dead bear's paws, penis or gall bladder. Myung had a bear-shooting permit, but her husband did not.

The global market in bear parts is estimated to be worth at least $2 billion US.

The problem of poaching is so bad in Asia, it has been linked to the virtual extinction of several bear species. Bear bile farms have been established in China where the animals are kept in deplorable conditions and their bile drained through surgically implanted devices.

The demand for bear gall bile comes despite scientists synthesizing the sought after compounds in cow bile.

mramsey@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2006