A dozen Asiatic black bears, malnourished and diseased from years spent on abusive bile-harvesting farms in southwest China, were recovering Saturday after being handed over to an animal charity group

holes were cut in their abdomens so that their bile could drip out to be harvested and used in Chinese traditional medicine

bear farming is legal in China but the bears came from farms that violated regulations by mistreating the animals

China started allowing bear bile farming in the 1980s, saying it would protect wild Asiatic black bears by satisfying the market for bile with farmed products

Wild bears are still poached because wild bile is believed to be better than farmed bile

An estimated 7,000 bears are kept in China's 247 bile-harvesting farms, according to government estimates, but Animals Asia believes the number could be as high as 10,000

The approved means of bile collection in China is through a permanent hole put in a bear's abdomen — a process known as the "free drip" method