[FEL-L] More on Tiger Farming

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

Just thought i`d share this with the group, Hope everyone has a Grrrreat 
Night / Day Friday sure could come, alittle faster........

Todd =^..^=

November 30, 2006


Dear CATT Subscriber,

Tigers made it to the big time last week.  

They did not just make the list of talking points for China President
Hu Jintao’s state visit to India.  They made it into a joint
declaration by China and India covering issues as weighty as terrorism,
nuclear energy and upping bilateral trade to $40 billion a year. 
Whether tigers are better off for the high-level attention remains to 
be
seen.  

According to the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, the Sino-India
declaration states “cooperation in wildlife conservation, 
particularly
in tiger conservation, shall be stepped up”
(www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=22168).  “Stepped up”
could mean that transboundary law enforcement operations to stop
smuggling of tiger parts from India into China may be in the offing.  
Alternatively, “stepped up” could mean that China and India will
soon shake hands on China reopening legal trade in tiger products.

In advance of President Hu’s India visit, China and India were about
to sign a memorandum of understanding on tigers that would have given
the nod to China reopening trade in products from farmed tigers,
according to a story that ran in the Indian Express newspaper
(www.indianexpress.com/story/15925.html).  When queried about the
article, Indian officials gave quiet denials, but nothing emphatic or
reassuring.  As a result, 12 organizations representing wildlife
conservation, animal welfare and traditional Chinese medicine interests
- in an unprecedented show of unity - issued a joint statement asking
President Hu to ensure China’s 13-year ban on tiger trade remains
firmly in place
(http://staging.nfwf.org/Content/NavigationMenu2/Initiatives/CATT/default.htm)
.

“*.reopening of trade in tiger products of any scope under any
regulatory scheme and from any source, including farms, will accelerate
the decline of wild tiger populations, within China and throughout 
their
range,” the joint statement says.  “Simply put, tiger farming will
create incentives to poach and opportunities for increased illegal 
trade
in parts and derivatives of wild tigers.”

World Bank economist Richard Damania explains it this way:  Poaching a
tiger is cheap, perhaps $20 to $40.  Raising a captive tiger to 
maturity
is at least 150 times more expensive - in the range of $3,000 to
$10,000.  “Clearly, the gap is so large that no amount of tiger
farming can bring the price of tiger parts down to a level that renders
poaching unprofitable,” he says.   But it could provide a nice, safe
place for smugglers to sell the parts of poached tigers. 

  Friday, 7:57 AM 
Differentials in overhead aren’t the only numbers that bode ill for
wild tigers in any scenario that sees China’s trade ban lifted. 
Basically, the 3,000 to 5,000 tigers left in the wild would end up
fending off reignited demand for tiger products among more than 1
billion increasingly wealthy consumers, many of whom remain convinced 
of
the tonic powers of tiger-bone wine.

Indian free-market pundit and freelance writer Barun Mitra continues to
assume the role of spokesperson for China’s tiger farmers, touting 
the
wonders of cattle and sheep farming as a road map for saving tigers. 
However, as writer Jay Mazoomdaar pointed out in the November 17th
edition of the Indian Express, “Conservation, Mitra fails to
understand, is not about having thousands of tigers strutting around in
cages lined up in some manicured ranch”
(www.indianexpress.com/story/16773.html).  Nor is it about herds of
domesticated tigers pouncing on pigs and chickens bought by tiger-farm
visitors hoping to see a bit of carnivorous theatre.  (To see for
yourself, type check out the home videos on www.youtube.com.)

“Chasing his market dream” Mazoomdaar writes, “Mitra should
remember that though technology may have withstood the Made-in-China
model, ecology won’t.”  

Tiger farming is indeed a market dream.  Or, rather, a marketing dream.
Because who really wants tiger products anymore?  The use of tiger
skins to adorn traditional robes in Asia’s pan-Tibetan region is
losing popularity.  And the use of tiger bone in medicines was banned 
in
China in 1993, at which time the traditional Chinese medicine industry
moved on to effective alternatives.  

The solution to saving wild tigers is not speed breeding their captive
counterparts to resuscitate a market for tiger products that went out 
of
business 13 years ago.

The solution to saving wild tigers is to enforce the law.  The solution
is to enforce existing laws that make tiger poaching a crime.  The
solution is to enforce current trade bans that making buying, selling
and smuggling tiger parts and products a crime.  If existing laws were
being enforced, no one would be proposing the ridiculousness of tiger
feedlots as a conservation tool.  

For years, before and during China’s current ban on tiger trade,
certain Chinese government officials made no secret of their intentions
to farm tigers “like cows and pigs.”  It is clear now that these
officials have the backing of wealthy businessmen in China who stand to
earn tens of millions of dollars from tiger farming.  It is clear that
enforcing national and international laws against tiger poaching and
trade was and is not in their best interest.  None will make a penny
from saving tigers in the wild.  

So, what will China and India’s “stepped up” cooperation on tiger
conservation mean for wild tigers?  Will it mean global leadership in
saving this iconic symbol of Asian wildlife or will it provide cover 
for
the demise of wild tigers at the hands of economic opportunists? 

It must be the former, if China is to have a truly “green” Green
Olympics in 2008.  And if China and India are to have any “face”
regarding conservation when they meet up in 2010, the next Year of the
Tiger, at the World Exposition in Shanghai.

Thank you for your interest in saving wild tigers,

Judy

Judy Mills
Director
Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT): An organized response to an
organized crime
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