Bear Gall

Dried bear gallbladders have been popular among traditional Chinese healers for over 1,000 years, with these items storing rich, potent bile in quantities the Politics & Law forum could only dream of. Demand for bear bile fuels the notorious practice of bear bile farming, where bears are kept in captivity and bile is extracted repeatedly through catheters or open wounds. On the scale of shitty things to do, slaughtering a bear and removing its gallbladder is probably the kinder option, but Dr. Doolittle, you ain’t. This particular dried gall was taken from a Canadian bear, meaning it likely apologized as it was being slit open and thanked the hunter for leaving its kidneys intact.