ACUTE black bear, half a meter tall, sits listlessly. The porridge lies there on a tin plate, ignored by the bear who just looks away. It is confused, confined in an iron cage that has deprived it of freedom. In the hands of Mahyar, a trader at Pasar Pramuka (pet market), East Jakarta, the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is offered for sale at Rp1.7 million. And that's the price of a baby bear.

As the animal grows bigger, it will fetch