Some of the black bears at the Dianchuan and Dianye bile factories in China's southwestern Yunnan province gnawed at their own paws to relieve the pain. Others in the cramped cages were not so lucky, having had their teeth and claws sawed off so they would not hurt their minders. Cramped, ill and in agony, hundreds, possibly more than 1,000, endangered black bears got good news when Chinese journalists uncovered two illegal bear bile factories where they were milked for their bile for use in Chinese medicine

the bears in small cages with surgically implanted tubes and valves for collection of bile. ``This valve is just like a bicycle valve, there is a spring in it. If you pull the spring down, the bile dribbles out, and if you pull it up it stops

showed bears yelping in pain as keepers extracted the bright green liquid, which has been harvested for thousands of years in Asia