Sadly, this morning I was listening to Public Radio International and heard a story about tigers in a zoo in Beijing. this past week a Siberian Tiger was found skinned and beheaded in a zoo in China. Shortly after that two tiger cubs were found dead in a fridge at the exact same zoo. One of the zookeepers said that in the past month they've only had about 20 visitors.
With all the Chinese medicine practiced, Tiger parts are in high demand. Well I guess they are in demand for reason other than medicinal purposes. I remember in Planet in Peril Dr. Sanjay Gupta found a secret hidden menu in a restaurant in China that had tiger penis listed on the menu. But when Dr. Gupta asked that waiter, he said something like they just wrote it but didn't really sell it....right. Some say that rather than trying to save all the tigers, which animal rights groups are trying to do, people should just sell the parts of the tigers that are already dead. I don't know if they've thought of this but what happens when all the tigers that are already dead are all sold off? Most likely people will just resort back to killing the tigers because according to an ancient myth tigers need to serve man. They were put on the earth to give themselves to us when we need them. Whatever. Perhaps it's the animals loving PETA side of me talking but by continuing to sell tiger parts the demand isn't going to go down. Maybe it'll stop poachers for a bit, but that's not likely.
We need to be more like our monkey brethren and befriend the tigers!
1 comment:
Heh it's good to know even prisons cater to environmentally conscious people. But it's pretty awful to hear something like the killed tigers on Christmas Eve. A zoo is supposed to be a sanctuary for animals, not a slaughterhouse... I hope it didn't ruin your Christmas.
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