BREAKING: New survey identifies last bears on bile farms in Vietnam

Following a period of intense negotiations in early 2025, Animals Asia secured agreement for and part-funded a landmark nationwide survey of all remaining bear farms in Vietnam.

The surveys, conducted between April and July, assessed the number and condition of bears still kept at private farming facilities. The findings, the fullest and most accurate overview of Vietnam’s dwindling bear bile farming industry, identified:

• 156 bears remaining in captivity across 53 private residences nationwide
• All bears are microchipped and registered under the existing legal exemption, which allows private individuals to keep bears
• Some bears are kept in poor conditions, with limited access to veterinary care or enrichment.

Animals Asia will be drawing on the detailed findings of the survey to facilitate the rescue of the final bile bears in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the Government of Vietnam in 2017.

The MOU commits the Government to eradicating bear bile farming throughout the country by 2026, supported by Animals Asia as its partner. To date, nearly 300 bears have been rescued from the trade and bear farming successfully eliminated from over 70% of Vietnam’s provinces.

Legal bear ownership

However a slow down in bear rescues in 2024 caused concern at Animals Asia. Our investigations discovered remaining traditional bear farming communities were deeply reluctant to give up their bears. The bears are legally owned and cannot be confiscated.

Animals Asia’s response

In response, Animals Asia increased our outreach, working within communities to change hearts and minds. We ran free health clinics, giving away our herbal alternative to traditional bear bile remedies, increased our public messaging and our work with schools. 

We also worked at a political level to push ending bear bile farming back up the agenda in Vietnam following a Government restructure. The restructure had moved key allies within Government.

Having re-established multi-stakeholder political engagement, we will be using the findings of the farm inspections in our negotiations to expedite the transfer of all bears still on farms into the care of Animals Asia’s world-class bear sanctuaries.