Bear bile is used to treat a variety of ailments, from hangovers to hemorrhoids. To meet black market demand, bears are cruelly farmed across Asia for their bile. But it's not just Asia's bears who are in danger.

In November, a bear was found in Virginia's Prince William Park with his gallbladder missing. As Asian bear populations dwindle, bears in the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable. The patchwork of state laws against the bear bile trade makes it impossible to enforce, and with gallbladders fetching more than $3,000 on the black market, there's a bounty on bears.

The Bear Protection Act (H.R. 3480) would prohibit interstate and international trade in bear organs, including buying, selling, transporting or possession. It would also require the Secretary of the Interior to engage in international efforts to address the bear bile trade worldwide.

This bill has been passed by the Senate twice in recent years, but it keeps getting stalled in the House of Representatives because special interest groups like the National Rifle Association see it as an attack on hunting. But, as Born Free USA points out, "this is an issue not about sport hunting but about poaching and commercializing wildlife."

There are a lot of threats to our bears, like habitat loss and climate change, and killing them for their bile shouldn't be on the list. Ask your representative to make this the year that the U.S. takes a stand against the bear bile trade.