It’s a practice that sounds so barbaric that you assume it would have been outlawed at least a century ago. And yet, South Korea is only just now, as of January 1, 2026, getting around to pulling the plug on its most disgusting and cruel tradition: bear bile farming.
As of the first of the month, the government began banning the breeding, possession, and bile extraction of bears, finally ending an industry that, while it has been shrinking, wasn’t shrinking fast enough.
Bear bile farming took off in the early 1980s, when farmers imported Asiatic black bears from Southeast Asia and kept them in small cages for their gall bladders. The bile was sold for traditional medicine and “stamina-boosting” food, based more on absurd beliefs rooted in magical thinking than on anything close to scientific evidence. At its peak, the industry held about 1,000 bears. Today, fewer than 200 remain, scattered across 11 farms.
The new ban follows a 2022 agreement between the government, farmers, and animal rights groups, and is backed by revised animal welfare laws that allow for prison sentences of up to five years.
So far, only 21 bears have been relocated to a government-run sanctuary in South Jeolla Province. Nearly 200 are still waiting, while disputes continue over compensation for farmers and the lack of space to house rescued animals. The existing sanctuary can officially hold 49 bears, though activists argue that number should be lower for humane care. Flooding problems have delayed a second facility until 2027.
Meanwhile, the farmers who used to raise these bears for their bile are stuck in limbo. Some of them say they are being ruined financially since they are selling the bears at a steep loss, while others feel abandoned by a policy shift that came too late to help them more cleanly transition to something else. Though one could argue that, simply on moral grounds, these farmers probably should have taken it upon themselves to transition away from the barbaric practice much sooner.
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