Caesar the brown bear spent years at a bile farm in China. Trapped in a small cage, she wasn’t able to move much while her bile was harvested from an open wound. Caesar also wore a painful metal vest around her abdomen. When Animals Asia came to rescue her back in 2004, she was in a miserable condition.

“I remember only too well her rescue some four years ago when she bounced violently in her rusting cage on the bear farm in Tianjin and I thought she would crash through,” Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia, wrote on their website. “Caesar was understandably a very unhappy bear.” Luckily now, after years of recovery, Caesar’s scars have healed and she’s “in robustly good health”. The majestic bear can finally enjoy a natural life.

“She has now spent a dozen happy years with Animals Asia in Chengdu, enjoying swims in the sunshine as well as indulging her natural digging instincts — particularly when the weather cools in the autumn,” Animals Asia told the Dodo.

The digestive fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Though this notorious practice is widely condemned, it’s estimated that there are around 10,000 bears at China’s bile farms.

More info: animalsasia.org | Instagram (h/t: thedodo)

This bear spent years tortured in a metal vest at a bear bile farm in China

The vest helped to collect the bear’s bile which is used in traditional Chinese medicine

“I remember only too well her rescue…when she bounced violently in her rusting cage…and I thought she would crash through”

“Caesar was understandably a very unhappy bear”

Luckily now, after years of recovery, Caesar can finally enjoy her life

Her scars have healed and she’s “in robustly good health”

She loves her afternoon naps…

…and the freedom of movement

But swimming is her absolute favourite!

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