Authorities Thursday suggested that the 81 Asiatic black bears seized at a raid on a bear bile farm in northern Quang Ninh Province two weeks ago, should be sent to a sanctuary or national park.
On October 2, provincial environment police raided the Viet Thai bear farm, confiscating 200 jars of bile and detaining five farm employees and two South Korean tourists.
24 of 81 bears were unregistered and therefore illegal. Vietnam allows people to keep wild animals provided they are not used for commercial exploitation.
According to Vietnamese law and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, moon bear can be kept on farms legally but the extraction and sale of their meat and bile is illegal.