Bear Bile, Gallbladders Banned in NYC

Though its passage was largely overlooked because of issues like equality among humans, the New York State Senate also voted this year to ban the "possession, sale, barter, offer, purchase, transportation, delivery or receipt" of bear bile, which is -- along with the animal's gallbladder -- used in Chinese medicine. New York is one of only five states that didn't previously restrict hunting bears for this specific part of their insides and therefore, lawmakers argued, it provided a loophole for poaching. On January 1, assuming Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs the bill, the mythic Tiger Balm will have to do for all of our otherwise untreatable ailments. [NBC NY]