Every year, bears across North America and around the world are targeted by poachers who kill them for a single part of their body: the gallbladder. A single bear gallbladder can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market, sold as an ingredient in traditional medicines and tonics. Poachers take what they came for and leave the rest of the bear, including cubs, to waste in the field.

This brutal trade threatens all eight of the world's bear species, including American black bears and grizzlies. Federal law already restricts some international trade in bear parts, but a loophole allows domestic commerce in bear organs to continue. That gap gives wildlife traffickers a way to launder illegally obtained parts as legitimate and makes it nearly impossible for law enforcement to tell the difference.

Congress has a bipartisan solution ready to go. The Bear Poaching Elimination Act, reintroduced by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), would close that loophole for good. The bill bans interstate and foreign commerce in bear viscera and products made from bear organs, cutting off the financial incentive that drives poaching and giving prosecutors the tools they need to go after trafficking networks.

Protecting bears from this cruelty is not a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats agree: no animal should be slaughtered for black-market profits. Sign to urge Congress to pass the Bear Poaching Elimination Act now.