Watch Ozzy Osbourne, Anthony Kiedis, Moby Stump for Mistreated Bears
Though they sometimes playfully struggled to get the actual message across, Ozzy Osbourne, Anthony Kiedis, Moby and more have teamed up for a silly video promoting Animals Asia’s campaign to raise awareness of moon, sun and brown bears in Asia that are caged and farmed for their bile.
Kiedis starts the clip in classic PSA form, but his introductory statement is continually interrupted — first by a makeup artist, who outfits him with a pair of bear ears and a black dot on his nose; and then, by Osbourne who roars through the set with an apologetic Sharon in tow.
The bear ears are worn throughout the clip, and though Duff McKagan wonders whether they could be the centerpiece of a new look, Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas finds them infuriating and mutters, “I’ve got three BAFTAs, three BAFTAs!” Moby also offers up an in-the-works ode to the bears, though has to discard several lines — “No one stares at the care bears” and “No one stares at the bad news bears” — for copyright reasons.
Steve-O closes out the video the only way the former Jackass star could: Duckwalking out in a full bear costume and wildly strumming an acoustic guitar, before realizing, “Wait, man where’s all the rock stars? Where’s Kanye? Where’s Bieber? I thought we were gonna jam, man!”
As the video notes at the end, bears across Asia are kept in excruciatingly small cages and subjected daily to painful and traumatic procedures to extract bile from their gallbladders so it can be used in traditional medicines. Over 10,000 bears are caged in China, and more than 1,200 are kept in Vietnam; Animals Asia has rescued over 500 of these bears and cares for them in sanctuaries in both countries.
Animals Asia’s campaign to end bear bile farming also includes a photo series shot by rock photographer Katarina Benzova that features several of the video’s stars. More information is available on the campaign’s website, where supporters can also pick up a shirt with the catchy slogan, “Let a Bear Shit In the Woods.”