VUIM is proud to announce that the University is sponsoring the Wildlife Protection in Traditional Chinese Medicine conference. The conference will take place on October 16th, at the Hilton, Financial District in SanFrancisco California. For more information, please visit www.wildlifeprotectionintcm.com.
In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), wildlife products have been prescribed in China for a long history and consumed by the public as medicinal ingredients. Certain wildlife species are now on the edge of extinction due to such demand. The positive image of TCM has been seriously distorted by the illegal use of endangered wildlife in Chinese herbal products. A famous ancient TCM practitioner, known as the “King of Chinese Medicine,” Sun Si Miao (581-682, Tang Dynasty) stated in his well-known classic “Da Yi Jing Cheng” 《大医精诚》: “Physicians sometimes treat diseases with animal products. However, both humans and animals cherish their lives. To treat humans using animals is against the principle of saving lives. Therefore, I don’t use animal products in my prescriptions.”
TCM professionals are an important intermediate actor in the wildlife consumption chain as they can directly communicate with consumers and guide consumption behaviors. We encourage all the TCM practitioners to join us to protect wildlife from use in TCM practice and publicly voice our concerns stating that we are against any illegal use of endangered wildlife in TCM.
This conference marks a celebration of the successful effort to remove tiger bone from TCM usage 24 years ago (Year of Tiger) and brings to light the urgent need to come together once more to protect other endangered species still in use and at risk of extinction. The conference aims to invite TCM practitioners, TCM researchers, wildlife conservation advocates, and other stakeholders to discuss the issues and challenges of wildlife protection, such as the use of pangolins in TCM practice, which is contributing to drastic declines in their population. It is also the annual conference of the National Federation of Chinese TCM Organizations in 2022.
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