There are numerous efforts to clamp down on the illegal trade in tiger parts. Several countries have banned the import and export of tiger parts and products made from tiger parts. It has been argued that tiger-farming for consumption would reduce poaching and save the tiger from extinction.There is a huge lobbying effort to persuade the Chinese government to lift the ban on farmed tiger products in order to “promote” conservation of wild tigers. Most experts agree that lifting the ban on farmed tiger products will lead to further killing of wild tigers as it would be impossible to police and detect wild tiger products and distinguish them from farmed tiger products on a large scale.
In a survey of 1880 residents of several Chinese cities, Brian Gratwicke and his colleagues found that up to 43% of those that responded claimed to have consumed tiger products. Although 88% of the respondents knew that it is illegal to buy and sell tiger products, 71% stated that they prefer wild tiger products to farmed products. Considering that the Chinese population now exceeds 1.3 billion, extrapolating from this survey, one could conclude that tiger products are consumed by over 559 million people. Is it any wonder that the wild tiger is almost extinct?
The demand has outstripped the supply due to dwindling tiger populations, so the bulk of the readily available “tiger” products in the Chinese consumer market does not actually contain real tiger parts. Jon Wetton and others found that when they sequenced DNA from “tiger bone” fragments seized from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shops, they actually originated from cattle and pigs. Thus there is much to profit from duping consumers who lack the understanding that their demand for TCM is killing wild tigers as they see the market flooded with so-called “tiger products” and likely continue to think there is an abundance of tigers. This further shapes attitudes and ignorance. Of the respondents in Gratwicke’s survey, 90% did not know there were only 50 tigers left in the wild in China. This means 1.2 billion humans are unaware that tigers in China are almost extinct.
John Vaillant’s book is a must read:
The IMAX Production highlights the Bengal Tiger:
