Ban Tiger farms in china

With as few as 20 in the wild in china, the countrys tigers are a few gun blasts away from extinction, and in India poachers are making quick work of the tiger population, the worlds largest. The number there, around 1,400, is about half that of a decade ago and a fraction of the 100,000 that roamed the subcontinent in the early 20th century.

Shrinking habitat remains a daunting challenge, but conservationists say the biggest threat to Asias largest predator is the chinese appetite for tiger parts. Despite a government ban on the trade since 1993, there is a robust market for tiger bones, traditionally prized for their healing and aphrodisiac qualities, and tiger skins, which have become cherished trophies among chinas nouveau riche.

With pelts selling for $20,000 and a single paw worth as much as $1,000, the value of a dead tiger has never been higher, say those who investigate the trade. Last month the Indian government announced a surge in killings of tigers by poachers, with 88 found dead in 2009, double the previous year. Because figures are based on carcasses found on reserves or tiger parts seized at border crossings, conservationists say the true number is far higher.

All of the demand for tiger parts is coming from china, said Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. Unless the chinese change their attitude, the tiger has no future on this earth.%u201D

Although conservationists say India must do a better job of policing its 37 tiger reserves, they insist that the chinese government has not done all it can to quell the domestic market for illicit tiger parts. Anti-trafficking efforts are haphazard, experts say; china bans the use of tiger parts in traditional chinese medicine but overlooks the sale of alcohol-based health tonics steeped in tiger bone.

It is a gray area that has been exploited by chinese tiger farms, which raise thousands of animals with assembly-line efficiency.

If there is any mystery about what happens to the big cats at xiongsen Tiger and Bear Mountain Village in guilin, it is partly explained in the gift shop, where fuzz-coated bottles in the shape of a tiger are filled with bone strengthening wine. The liquor, which costs $132 for a six-year-old brew, is sold openly across the surrounding guangxi region and beyond.

This stuff works wonders, said zhang hanchu, the owner of a spirits shop in Guilin. A daily shot glass of the rice-based alcohol, he said, can reduce joint stiffness, treat rheumatism and increase sexual vigor. With the Year of the Tiger nearing, demand has been soaring, he said.

Opened in 1993 with financing from the State Forestry Administration, Xiongsen is chinas largest tiger-breeding operation. Some of its 1,500 tigers roam treeless, fenced-in areas, while many others are packed in small cages where they pace agitatedly.

The park is a fairly dispiriting place. In addition to the tigers, there are hundreds of capuchin monkeys rattling in cages, awaiting their fate as fodder for medicinal elixirs or medical experiments. There are also about 300 Asiatic brown bears which are tapped for their bile, the main ingredient of a lucrative supplement said to improve eyesight.

Those who pay the parks $12 entry fee are treated to an extravaganza of tigers jumping through rings of fire or balancing on balls; if the crowds are large enough, workers will place a cow and a tiger in an enclosure with predictably gruesome results.

Until a spate of negative press two years ago, Xiongsen proudly sold tiger steaks at its restaurant as big king meat. These days, the park takes a more low-key approach. The word tiger no longer appears on the wine packaging rare animal bones is used instead  although those who sell the wine say the key ingredient remains tiger bone.

On a recent visit, a regular stream of cars, some with government license plates, pulled up to a building at the center of the park and drove away with their trunks full of Xiongsens wine tonic. A large sign in the buildings interior declares Protecting Wild Animals is the Bounden Duty of Every Citizen.