Demand fuels slaughter of tigers by illegal gangs
Print Edition
TIGERS are being slaughtered and their meat and bones sold at high prices in an illegal trade involving government officials in south China’s Guangdong Province, according to a Nanfang Daily report.
Gangs in Leizhou City were buying tigers for 200,000 (US$32,220) to 300,000 yuan and making a profit of at least 100,000 yuan on each one, the newspaper said. Tiger bones sell for 14,000 yuan and tiger meat at 1,000 yuan a kilogram, according to its sources.
Trade in endangered species is banned in China, as it is in many other countries, but demand is enormous.
Tiger skins are popular and in traditional medicine the tiger is sought after for its bones, flesh and blood. Since the tiger is a powerful animal, there’s a belief that ingesting parts of the animal builds vitality.
Virtually every part of the tiger is used as a treatment or “cure” for everything from insomnia to rheumatism.
Tiger bone, frequently made into wine, is believed to be able to treat rheumatism and arthritis, general weakness, headaches, stiffness and even partial paralysis.
The tigers transported to Leizhou are alleged to have been smuggled from Vietnam or from Anhui and Henan provinces.
One man, surnamed Chen, who works for a public body in Leizhou told the newspaper that almost every businessman he knew had tiger bone wine at their home. Some private companies owners even used tiger parts when they tried to bribe government officials, he said.
The paper said a deputy to the People’s Congress in Zhanjiang City, which administers Leizhou, had brought a bottle of tiger wine to a banquet, and a director of a local township justice authority had claimed to have witnessed the slaughter of one tiger.
Chen said local businessmen and government officials would be present when a tiger was killed and butchered after friends had spread the word with a time and a place.
Zhanjiang police said that since 2007 they had found people killing 12 tigers. On March 18, they launched their latest crackdown. During the investigation, a 61-year-old butcher surnamed Huang fell to his death while he was being chased by police.
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