3 Plead Guilty To Trafficking In Bear Organs

Drugs and guns are generally thought of as the modern-day smuggler's commodities of choice. But three Maryland residents admitted yesterday to trafficking in something far more exotic: black bear gallbladders.

Nine of them, to be precise, harvested during a hunting trip in Canada and destined for use in traditional Chinese medicine, a purpose for which they might fetch as much as $100 each.

The gallbladders were discovered in a suitcase in June 2005, when agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stopped the three as they changed planes at an airport in Minnesota en route from Saskatchewan to Baltimore, according to the statements of facts that are part of the plea agreements.

Terrence Beaulac, 39, of Chesapeake Beach and Richard Dempsey, 38, of Lothian each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a felony count of illegal trafficking of wildlife. They admitted to selling bear gallbladders illegally and to knowing that they were breaking the law.

The third defendant, Kimberley Scherer, 37, of Waldorf had stashed the gallbladders in a suitcase at Dempsey's request, the statement said. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of the same offense.

Their attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Romano, who prosecuted the case, said the gallbladders were "in a pouch, and that pouch was in a boot, and that boot was in one of Ms. Scherer's suitcases."

Grace Ge Gabriel, the Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said bile from bear gallbladders is part of the pharmacopeia of traditional Chinese medicine and is used to treat liver conditions and other ailments.

The substance is so sought-after that thousands of bears caught in the wild are kept at farms in China, where they are essentially milked for bile, raising issues of animal cruelty as well as conservation. "They keep these bears in tiny cages, and they put a catheter into their stomachs to extract the bile for medicine," she said.

Gabriel said recent years have brought a proliferation of products containing the substance, including bear bile wine, bear bile tea and even bear bile shampoo and toothpaste.

Dempsey, Beaulac and Scherer are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 7. Prosecutors said they will recommend that each be placed on probation for five years and that they not be permitted to hunt during that time.