Bigcats News

[sanjay]

China’s Threat to Wild Tigers

A wonderful article, that shows china's culture is biggest threat to the tiger.

Few parts of the article-

Quote:The demise of the tiger, the world’s most endangered big cat, was hastened by demand for traditional Chinese medicine, which ascribed healing properties to nearly every part of the cat, from whiskers to tail.

Quote:Tiger parts are now consumed less as medicine and more as exotic luxury products.

Quote:It’s a deadly commerce fueled by China’s commercial captive breeding farms, which hold more than 5,000 tigers and maintain stockpiles of frozen carcasses and body parts. These farms spur poaching of wild tigers by perpetuating the market in tiger parts.

Quote:Tigers command a small fortune on the black market, and demand is rising. A loophole in the country’s wildlife protection law allows the breeding and “utilization” of certain products derived from captive-bred endangered species. This has made industrial-scale “tiger farming” big business.

Quote:Some farms are run as animal parks, where the few healthy animals perform before cheering tourists. The rest are hidden from public view. Though these parks are thinly disguised as educational or conservation initiatives, they in no way help the species. A captive tiger has never been successfully released into the wild.

And here is the full article source
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinio...igers.html Reply