The Last Year of the Tiger?

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-02-09 14:00:00 UTC
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The Chinese Year of the Tiger starts on Valentine's Day, but there may not be enough love in the world to save tigers from exploitation and extinction.

According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, it may already be too late for the South China tiger. In the rest of the country, there are fewer than 50 tigers left; globally, the population is the lowest it has ever been.

Despite the critical state of wild tigers, and the recognition that wildlife trade is a form of organized crime, the UN General Assembly simply doesn't prioritize the poorly enforced international laws and porous borders that support the illegal trade.

Wild tigers in China are outnumbered by farmed tigers by as many as three to one. Tiger farms serve a number of purposes for the Chinese and Thai businessmen who own them. They breed and raise the animals for their body parts: skin, bones, blood, and other parts worth a lot of money on the black market. The farms are also tourist attractions, where the "safari park" experience can include paying to watch the tigers chase cows or chickens and shopping for tiger bone wine.

While tiger farm operators like to claim that their business helps reduce poaching, they're really just feeding the illegal trade. The tiger farms operate just like any other profit-driven factory farm with caged, overbred animals. Cubs are typically nursed by other species such as pigs or dogs so the tigresses can continually reproduce, giving birth at three times or more their natural rate. Despite China's ban on the commercial trade of tiger products, the farms have been allowed to expand and the wealthy owners continue to lobby the government to lift the trade restrictions.

The Chinese State Forestry Administration almost gave in to the pressure from tiger farmers, but instead they've promised to keep a closer eye on tiger breeders and to crack down on poaching and the illegal trade in tiger parts. While WWF applauded the move, the Environmental Investigation Agency is less impressed, saying that allowing the tiger farms to continue to exist implies that the trade in tiger parts will be legal again someday. And as long as the black market still has such a steady supply to feed the demand, the thirteen Asian nations (including China) with wild tiger populations who pledged to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 are going to have their hands full keeping the animals from extinction. 

Photo credit: Pavel Sigarteu

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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