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Boo The Bear Evidence

A man called Nguyen Duc Duy in Quynh Yen, Quynh Luu, Nghe An, Vietnam had 3 unmicrochipped bears confiscated on 30th May 2019.  An international media investigation reveals he owns 6 more bears at Farm 1 and 4 more bears at Farm 2 (within 5 minutes drive).  Although Duc Duy is claiming that 3 bears on Farm 1 are legal and the other 3 have damaged microchips, the evidence below reveals that they are unchipped, were poached from Laos and are being used for commercial bile extraction.

Vietnamese Translator's Evidence - SmallArtist Name
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Evidence that Mr Nguyen Duc Duy’s Bears are Illegal

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  1. An investigation by international media published in The Diplomat  and Global Financial Integrity’s Transnational Crime Brief Weekly Update.

    1. All 9 bears on Farm 1 were visibly small and therefore too young to be microchipped.  Farm 2 had one small bear and 3 slightly larger bears.  The slightly larger bears looked adolescent and did not show any obvious signs of adult hood/old age. eg: broken teeth, calloused paws and the long-haired neck ruff was only visible when roused to aggression.  This can be seen in photos and/or videos. 

  2. A video of Mr Nguyen Duc Duy admitting the bears are illegal.  This video has been uploaded to this page and entitled ‘Duc Duy – unchipped bears.’

  3. Video interview with the translator who attended the media investigation.  To protect his identity an audio file entitled 'Vietnamese Translator's Evidence' can be found above. The translator states

    1. The farmer bought all his bears as 1 kg cubs from Laos.  (As Asiatic Black Bears are CITES Appendix I species this breaks international law). 

    2. The oldest bear on both farms is about 5 years with most of them aged 3 -5 years old, apart from a 7-month-old cub. (2018)  (The fact that Duc Duy is claiming microchips are broken in 3 bears is irrelevant as these bears are visibly too young to be microchipped.  As they are visibly illegal, it begs the question as to why the Authorities have not confiscated these bears).

    3. The translator states that Duc Duy said some of his bears used to be microchipped but admitted that none of them are presently microchipped. 

  4. An Oxford University Academic also translates the ‘Duc Duy – unchipped bear’ video to corroborate the Vietnamese translator’s evidence.  He confirms the following: 

    1. Duc Duy “admitted that they first bought these bears illegally”

    2. Duc Duy “is aware that he is keeping the bears illegally”

  5. A separate investigation by Education for Nature – Vietnams Wildlife Crime Unit.

  6. Emails from the official team who recently confiscated Duc Duy’s 3 bears on Farm 1.  They said:

    1.  “It was pretty sad to have to leave the others behind, especially seeing that some were also young and therefore illegal bears.” 

    2. “As I understand, 3 of the 6 bears we left behind supposedly have microchips, the 3 youngsters do not.” 

  7. Duc Duy approached an NGO to get the bears microchipped as he knew they were illegal.

 

Evidence of Commercial Sale of Bile

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  1. Video of Nguyen Duc Duy extracting large quantities of bile from 3 bears on Farm 2.  This produced nearly 300ml of bile and with prices at US $2 per ml this would make Duc Duy about $600.  This video is entitled ‘Bile Extraction – Nguyen Duc Duy’ and can be found above.

  2. Photo of people bottling and labelling bile in Nguyen Duc Duy’s dining room.  Man in baseball cap is cutting labels to fix to bottles.  One does not need to label bile bottles for personal use.  Labelling shows a clear intention of selling for commercial gain. 

  3. A Hanoi bear bile dealer called Tran Quang Hong has an illegal active bear bile internet site and hotline and introduced the media team to Nguyen Duc Duy and his farms.  Tran Quang Hong’s contact details are Tel: 0985 128687 or 02466871529.  Address: SO 8 to 18 Hoang Liet, Hoang Liet, Hoang Mai, Ha Noi 100000. 

  4. Tran Quang Huan is Tran Quang Hong’s brother and works on Duy’s farm.  See photo of people bottling and labelling bile in Duy’s dining room.  

 

 

This case is raising significant concern as not only are the species involved protected by CITES legislation and clearly illegal but the community has become extremely violent.  Approximately 100 people attacked 2 female wildlife charity workers who were enabling the rescue of Mr Duc Duy’s bears.  The very aggressive crowd attempted to kidnap them and hold them hostage and set fire to their car while they were inside.  Read their press release here: https://www.env4wildlife.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=888:bears-transferred-after-long-struggle&catid=14

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