By davideownzall on Skatehive
Credits: Animal Watch Little by little, in various countries around the world, laws to protect animals are beginning to be enacted, and now it is South Korea’s turn, where from January 2026, among other things, the extraction of bile from bears is finally banned, through an amendment to the Wildlife Protection and Management Act, which more generally prohibits the ownership, reproduction, and breeding of bears in captivity, as well as the production, consumption, and distribution of their bile. This is not a small matter; in fact, this is a practice that lasted over forty years, as it began in the 1980s, and is carried out in intensive farms where the animals are kept in captivity solely and exclusively to extract their bile. The ban is the result of economic and social changes, given that over time the conditions around these farms have changed: public pressure, international standards, available alternatives. Moreover, today that same substance is produced in laboratories, more econo