New report exposes the double standard which stimulates demand
February 2013. Despite signing up to global initiatives seeking to protect wild tigers and double their number by 2022, Government departments in China have quietly set about stimulating domestic markets for tiger skins and body parts.
5000 tigers in captivity in China
As few as 3,500 tigers survive in the wild, yet more than 5,000 captive-bred tigers are held in Chinese ‘farms' and ‘zoos'.
Investigations by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) have uncovered a legalised domestic trade in the skins of captive-bred tigers, sold as luxury home décor and stimulating the poaching of wild tigers and other Asian big cats as cheaper alternatives.
Tiger wine
In addition, new evidence suggests a ‘secret' Government notification on the use of the bones of captive-bred tigers is being used to justify the manufacture of ‘tonic' wines.
The new EIA report ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: China's Clandestine Tiger Trade' accuses China of defying the will of the international community and calls upon more senior levels of the Government to take control and amend laws to facilitate the destruction of stockpiles of all tiger parts and the phasing out of tiger farms.
EIA also wants the Government to send a clear message to all breeders, consumers and the industry that official policy is to end all demand and trade.
Debbie Banks, Head of EIA's Tiger Campaign, said: "The stark contradiction between China's international posture supporting efforts to save the wild tiger and its inward-facing domestic policies which stimulate demand and ultimately drive the poaching of wild tigers represents one of the biggest cons ever perpetrated in the history of tiger conservation.
Intolerable disconnect between words and deeds
"Pro-tiger trade policies are championed by only a handful of officials in a couple of Government departments and it behooves China to vigorously address and terminate this intolerable disconnect between words and deeds which so undermines international efforts to save the tiger."
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