Chinese farmer eaten by own bears

I have been to the edge of Chinese civilization, the border towns of old Manchuria and Russia. It was there that I saw my first Russian, in the days when it was rare for an American to see one. It is still a wild country, with restaurants that feature menu items like moose nose, bear palm and bile. I've seen first hand the Chinese appetite for such things.

Well, it seems the bears had their turn. A Chinese man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional medicine in Asia, was killed and eaten by his animals, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The bears were still running around in the pen when the police came to retrieve the farmer's body.

The moral of the story is one doesn't mess around with wild mother nature without really being prepared. And even then things can go wrong, particularly when it involves bears that are poorly treated -- or actually, especially when it involves bears.
Photo by Gracey Stinson via Morguefile.com.