The programme Tigers: Hunting the Traffickers which was on BBC2 recently left me reeling. There were some difficulit scenes to watch, but the animals need our practical help.
The EIA (that's the Environmental Investigation Agency) has a lot of information about tiger farms, with numbers of tiger "zoos", farms, and so forth, and they also have ways to help.
How to help tigers on tiger farms
Ask our MPs to put pressure on at the highest government levels in China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
There are currently about 4,000 tigers in the wild – in just 10 years, they have been wiped out in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Poachers have decimated the tiger population in Malaysia and Mayanmar, and deforestation for human “needs” has had a severe impact on tigers as well – they have lost their habitat.
China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand are churning out tigers in dreadful tiger farms. They are slaughtered for their skins, bones, teeth and claws – some die naturally. They are traded for profit. And that suggests that it’s okay to do this to a majestic animal who should be in the wild. The international community has called for the end of the practice of tiger farming. For trade in tiger parts of captive tigers increases demand. It undermines enforcement efforts. And it threatens the survival of wild tigers.
Unfortunately, a decline in wild tigers in China has been made worse by the declaration under Chairman Mao of the tiger as an agricultural pest with a bounty on its head. Tigers were killed to supply a legal domestic trade in raw bone, mass produced tiger bone pills, wine and plasters. As the wild population declined, the Government financed the first tiger farm in 1986, to supply bones for medical use. There are now 6,000 tigers in captivity in more than 200 facilit
Since the coronavirus, the Chinese Government has announced a ban on wildlife trade for consumption of food. But this is only tackling a part of the problem; the EIA wants a Chinese and global ban extended to all trade, including the use of tigers and other wildlife in the production of traditional medicines. .
The EIA says, "Write to your elected representative. Ask them to urge your Prime Minister or President to call upon President Xi to phase out tiger farms and end all trade the parts and products of tigers and other big cats, from both wild and captive sources."
We need to stop the demand for tiger parts
If we can stop the demand for tiger parts, that will make a huge difference. There's a video from The Dodo, Why you should never buy tiger wine - share it with everyone!
Spread the word
Tiger bone is so not right! The more we can make people aware that bones belong to tigers, the better. Education for Nature - Vietnam is an organisation seeking to educate people about wildlife and it has a video called Tiger Bone is Not a Gift