Posted on 06/17/2013 9:47:59 PM PDT by TexGrill
Local police have arrested two Russians trying to smuggle 213 brown bear paws, according to a source from Manzhouli Customs in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Monday.
The bear paws were found on May 22, in the possession of two Russians who were carrying them inside their car tyres whilst on their way to China.
The number of paws attempted to be smuggled is the highest recorded to date.
Bear's paw is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine and also used to treat rheumatism in traditional Chinese medicine.
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I’ve never eaten bear paws yet, but I did drink bear alcohol. I will look around for the delicacy. However, I haven’t eaten dog, shark fin soup and bird’s nest soup and I can attest those meals were delicious.
Tiger Penis Soup... not to be confused with the lesser known Wolf Noodle Soup (or Koala Flambé).
The basic answer is that they were forbidden to use scientific methods, particularly autopsies, to develop theories as to how the human body was built and how it worked. So their level of “science” for many hundreds of years was more or less witchcraft, which resulted in the mumbo-jumbo of “balance” and “energy flow” and “forces” (not the measurable F=mA forces) and so on.
Along this path they invented what is derisively called “magical thinking”, the idea that however a thing looks or acts, that’s what it’s made of, and those properties transfer directly upon consumption. That’s how we get silliness like rhino horns for you-know-what, eating the heart of a lion for bravery and strength, ginger root that’s shaped like a person being extra special, etc.
I don’t know if that explains bear claws, but that’s my answer to your question.
53 dead bears and one not as dead as they thought when the saw was applied.
There are tens of thousands of legally killed bears in the US and Canada every year.
Many of their valuable parts go to waste because of stupid laws that do not allow them to be sold.
Wouldn’t allowing trade in legally taken bear part reduce the number or need to take bears illegally.
But no we say no matter how the bear was taken one can not sell these parts. So we encourage the illegal trading of bear parts.
With modern DNR testing it would be simple to track the legal from illegal.
You’re right. In China they got bear ranches and drug factories located nearby. As I recall one Chinese bear rancher launched an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. However I forget the name of the company since I read about the story 2 years ago.
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