are rescued after neighbors heard their cries

Laos police found 17 cubs, including one dead,

in a raid on a Chinese-Lao couple's house

MATT HUNT/CEO/FREE THE BEARS

"Sixteen live bear cubs, extremely young, seemingly purchased illegally from hunters across Northern Laos. We don't know why they had purchased such a large number of bear cubs, most likely to try and establish a bear bile farm."

"Their mothers would have been killed in order for the hunters to get the cubs. So, yeah, it was a huge operation. It's probably the single largest-ever rescue of endangered bear cubs worldwide. And obviously a huge task for our team now to try and hand-raise these cubs, which, you know, some of them are literally only a few weeks old, so they're having to be bottle fed around the clock."

Moon bears are hunted for their bile,

which is used in traditional Asian medicine

It is illegal to hunt, own or trade

moon bears or their parts in Laos