52 Arrested in Bear Poaching Roundup : Herbalists Allegedly Sold Animals’ Organs for Medicinal Use

In what state fish and game authorities described as “one of the largest investigations of its kind in the western United States,” agents have rounded up 52 alleged bear poachers and dealers in bear parts after a nearly two-year statewide investigation.

Those arrested include 23 Asian herbalists in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley who allegedly sold organs that are used either for medicinal purposes or for their professed aphrodisiac properties.

In their search for illegally taken black bears, undercover agents from the state Department of Fish and Game raided swap meets, apothecary shops and herb stores and arrested a ring of poachers operating as hunting guides in Northern California.

Evidence Valued at $105,243

Investigators seized evidence valued at $105,243, said Gordan Cribbs, regional patrol chief for the agency. “That does not include the aesthetic value to hunters, photographers and wildlife enthusiasts who have been deprived of the opportunity to see these creatures,” he said.

Agents displayed some of the confiscated articles at a press conference at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. A pair of stuffed bear cubs stood fetchingly upright on log segments. Lacquered bear claws were set in silver necklaces and pins, some embellished with turquoise. Spread across a table were dozens of dried gallbladders.

The gallbladders, which are valued among some Chinese and Koreans for their alleged tonic effects, were being sold primarily in Asian herb stores in Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel and Los Angeles’ Chinatown and Koreatown, agents said. Purchasers pay as much as $540 an ounce for the gallbladders, investigators said.

“It’s ground up and taken as medicine, generally in liquor or an elixir of some kind,” Cribbs said. “The alleged use is for increased vitality.”

The gallbladders were purchased by Culver City Police Officer Tere Akune, who assisted in the investigation, posing as a buyer who wanted to purchase the substance for a sick relative.

Most of the seized parts, however, proved to be from pigs or cows. Cribbs said one goal of the Department of Fish and Game is to publicize the fraud to unsuspecting buyers. “Ninety percent of the gallbladders we bought were not from bears,” he said.

Akune said she had met little hesitancy from sellers of the gallbladders. “They wanted to make sure they felt comfortable about who I was,” she said. “They asked my name and my background. I told them the gallbladder was for my mother.”

She said 95% of the stores that she went to sold some form of the organ. “Some places had it right out in the open,” she said. “Some kept it in a back room.”

One of those arrested, Man Man Wong, an Alhambra acupuncturist, said in a telephone interview that the woman had said she intended to send the gallbladder to a relative in Korea.

“I said I never sell it in the store,” Wong said. “But she asked me could I order it.” He said he received a gallbladder from a friend, which he subsequently sold to the undercover agent.

Wong said there is an “old tradition” in Chinese medicine of using bear gallbladders for such illnesses as hepatitis and inflamed gallbladder.

Fish and game investigators said that the organ sold by Wong, for which Akune paid $165, was from a pig. Wong’s attorney, Peter Lazarus, said he had intended to ask for a lab analysis of the organ that his client had sold. “I don’t see any pigs in the statute,” he said.

But state authorities say the offer to sell bear parts is a violation of the fish and game statute.

Northern California Arrests

Arrests in Northern California included that of a Weaverville man who allegedly sold 26 bear gallbladders and five skulls to agents, a Fresno Indian art dealer who sold bear claw rings and pendants, a San Bruno meat dealer who sold bear hams and a San Bruno taxidermist who sold a bear rug.

Most have been charged with violations of fish and game statutes forbidding the sale of bear parts. Offenders can be charged under the law with either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the prosecutor, Cribbs said. Most of the defendants face a maximum of six months in jail and $2,000 in fines.

As part of the larger investigation, agents also arrested six hunters in Northern California who allegedly violated bear hunting laws by killing 11 bears in 15 months. Each count carries a potential penalty of $500 and six months in jail.

Although California black bears are not endangered, Cribbs said, there are incentives for illegal hunting that could considerably reduce their numbers.

“We think that two or three times as many bears are killed illegally as they are legally,” he said. Last year, 1,450 bears were legally killed during the two-month fall season.

Poachers can turn each bear carcass into more than $800, he said, by separately selling the meat, fur, skull and claws to collectors.