BEIJING - A Chinese medicine professional denied claims that the practice of extracting bear bile is cruel and promised to give media a chance to visit the country's bear farms.

The extraction of bear bile for medicinal purposes has met opposition from animal rights activists in recent years. Opponents say the bears are subjected to crude surgery that leaves permanent wounds in their abdominal walls and gall bladders, causing serious diseases and even death.

The protest became increasingly intense in past weeks after a pharmaceutical company in Fujian province that makes medicine from bear bile filed for approval by the Growth Enterprise Board to be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The company, Guizhentang Pharmaceuticals, is expected to use the funds raised by the initial public offering (IPO) to expand the size of its farm and the number of its bears, media reported.

Fang Shuting, head of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), said there is a great misunderstanding among the media and the public about the process of extracting bear bile.

"Such cruel practices happened more than 20 years ago," he said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

"The process of extracting bear bile now only takes about 10 seconds. During that short period, the black bear feels no pain or any strange sensations, and can play and eat as usual," he said.

"Based on what I saw on the farms, the bears look very comfortable after the extraction."

A black bear is locked in an iron cage barely large enough for its body, waiting for bile extraction at a bear farm in Weihai, Shandong province, in April 2010.

If they do not want to take his word for it, the media can visit a bear farm to see for themselves, Fang said.

He did not clarify when a farm would open to the media, nor did he specify which farm would be opened.

"But it is not possible to completely open bear farms to the public because germs may pose potential risks to the bears kept for bile extraction if a large number of people pay a visit," Fang said.

In 2006, China had 68 registered bear farms where about 7,000 black bears were kept for bile extraction, statistics from the State Forestry Administration showed.

The number of bear farms increased to 98 by 2011, and it is estimated that about 20,000 black bears are kept for bile extraction, Animals Asia Foundation statistics showed.

Fang denied that the association has a "direct connection" to Guizhentang's IPO plan. But the company is listed as a member of the association, according to the association's website.

"Animal experts and veterinarians should also be allowed to enter the bear farms, if he wants to prove what he says," said Sun Quanhui, an official from the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

"I don't believe it at all that extracting bile is as easy and comfortable as Fang said. Why doesn't he extract the bile from his body in the same way to prove it?" wrote a female netizen from Chengdu, posting under the name Liangxiaotangtang on Sina Weibo, a popular micro-blogging site.

Bear bile is used in traditional medicine in China and other Asian countries because it is thought to have health benefits, such as detoxification, cleansing the liver and improving vision.

Years of research has shown that China can produce drug substitutes that have the same function as bear bile, said Jiang Qi, former vice-president of Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, in January.

But so far, government authorities have not approved the substitute drugs for sale on the market.

Guangzhou Jia Yu medical equipment Limited