/9 chasseurs US venaient chasser l'ours noir au Canada

[Animal 0]

- 9 chasseurs américains venaient chasser l'ours noir au Canada pour faire le trafic de vésicules biliaires


3 Plead Guilty To Trafficking In Bear Organs

By Eric Rich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 23, 2006; Page B02

Drugs and guns are generally thought of as the modern-day smuggler's
commodities of choice. But three Maryland residents admitted yesterday to
trafficking in something far more exotic: black bear gallbladders.

Nine of them, to be precise, harvested during a hunting trip in Canada and
destined for use in traditional Chinese medicine, a purpose for which they
might fetch as much as $100 each.

The gallbladders were discovered in a suitcase in June 2005, when agents of
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stopped the three as they changed planes
at an airport in Minnesota en route from Saskatchewan to Baltimore,
according to the statements of facts that are part of the plea agreements.

Terrence Beaulac, 39, of Chesapeake Beach and Richard Dempsey, 38, of
Lothian each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a felony
count of illegal trafficking of wildlife. They admitted to selling bear
gallbladders illegally and to knowing that they were breaking the law.

The third defendant, Kimberley Scherer, 37, of Waldorf had stashed the
gallbladders in a suitcase at Dempsey's request, the statement said. She
pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of the same offense.

Their attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Romano, who prosecuted the case, said
the gallbladders were "in a pouch, and that pouch was in a boot, and that
boot was in one of Ms. Scherer's suitcases."

Grace Ge Gabriel, the Asia regional director for the International Fund for
Animal Welfare, said bile from bear gallbladders is part of the pharmacopeia
of traditional Chinese medicine and is used to treat liver conditions and
other ailments.

The substance is so sought-after that thousands of bears caught in the wild
are kept at farms in China, where they are essentially milked for bile,
raising issues of animal cruelty as well as conservation. "They keep these
bears in tiny cages, and they put a catheter into their stomachs to extract
the bile for medicine," she said.

Gabriel said recent years have brought a proliferation of products
containing the substance, including bear bile wine, bear bile tea and even
bear bile shampoo and toothpaste.

Dempsey, Beaulac and Scherer are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 7.
Prosecutors said they will recommend that each be placed on probation for
five years and that they not be permitted to hunt during that time.