China zoo closed; allegations it harvested tiger parts

17 March, 2010

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China zoo closed; allegations it harvested tiger parts 

(March 17, 2010; AFP)

A controversial zoo in China has been closed after a spate of deaths of Siberian tigers whose bones are believed to have been used to make a tonic much prized for boosting virility.

One of China’s more outspoken newspapers questioned why the privately run Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo in northeastern Liaoning province had been allowed to operate for years despite reports its tigers were starving to death.

The Beijing News quoted an unidentified official as saying between 40 and 50 tigers may have died at the zoo since 2000. It was an “open secret” that the zoo was producing costly tiger-bone liquor.

Tiger tonics, such as wine made from ground bones, are regarded as powerful traditional Chinese medicines enhancing sexual potency and treating certain illnesses. Such products can fetch a high price on the black market.

Troubles at the zoo caught the public imagination with a report last week that 11 of the big cats had died of starvation in recent weeks, including six on a single day, in a tragic start to the Year of the Tiger.

It was just the latest such tragedy at the zoo. Last November, two hungry cats mauled a keeper and had to be shot by police. One newspaper reported at the time: “The attack is attributed to the tigers being starving.” Underpaid keepers were tossing in chicken carcasses to the hungry animals.

Even that tragedy was not the first sign that the zoo’s big cats were short of food.

In late 2007, wildlife experts were stunned when four tigers killed and devoured a fellow cat with which they had shared their living quarters for five years. The four desperate tigers turned on a 12-year-old, 330-pound, animal and tore off its left leg. A zoo official said: “I was shocked, particularly as the five tigers, which were of the same age, had been living together for five years. This kind of thing has never happened before.”

Now it emerges that the animals may have been deliberately left to die so that their corpses could be harvested for lucrative bones and penises. The corruption that pervades almost every echelon of government and Communist Party in China may have been partly to blame.

One report quoted an official of the zoo as saying he had been distilling tiger bone wine since 2005 and had brewed several large vats. The unidentified official said: “I myself have taken tiger bone wine.” He said the zoo generally used the wine in gifts-for-favours transactions with senior officials including the Forestry departments, which are responsible for animal conservation, as well as the police.

China banned trade in tiger bones and related products in 1993, and is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which also bars such sales.

Only about 20 Siberian tigers are believed to survive in the wild while the South China tiger is now believed to be extinct.

However, since the 1980s China has set up tiger farms to try to preserve the big cats and conservation groups say many are believed to be hoping for a relaxation of the rules that would enable to harvest the bones of tigers that die a natural death.