[FEL-L] Dramatic DNA evidence of tiger meat on the menu at China`s largest tiger farm

[Tim Stoffel]

On Fri, 2007-05-04 at 13:15 -0400, BigCatSimba at aol.com wrote:
> Disgust as tiger meat is found on Chinese menu 
> 
> British TV crew delivers dramatic DNA evidence of tiger meat on the
> menu at China's largest tiger farm. 
> 
> 
> April 2007. International conservation groups are calling on the
> Chinese government to open an immediate investigation into China’s
> largest tiger farm, after a Beijing-based news team reported it has
> proof that the farm’s restaurant serves tiger meat. 
> 
> The request stems from a report by Independent Television News (ITN)
> on the results of DNA testing of a piece of tiger meat served to ITN
> staff in February at Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village near
> Guilin. After ITN aired a story about the farm’s tiger entree, the
> businessman who owns the farm denied the claim. The DNA was then
> tested by a laboratory in China. 

Conservation implies that sometimes, a controlled consumptive use of a
scarce but renewable resource is highly appropriate.

Why didn't these people simply take their word for it that the tiger
meat that they were serving was in fact, tiger meat? Are the values of
people in the West so messed up that they can't believe what they are
being served tiger meat AT A TIGER FARM?

If there are 4,000 tigers on tiger farms, and anything at all is being
done to promote genetic diversity, they are doing the tiger a big favor.
Right now, that would mean that there are more tigers in Chinese tiger
farms than there are in the wild in India.

The same situation exists in South Africa with lions. Although there
isn't quite the medicinal market for lion parts, there is a market for
pelts, claws, etc. (and sometimes meat) which the existing lion farms
there have kept above-board and legitimate. Now, the government has
banned almost all of these operations, and 2,000 lions are about to be
'wasted'.

It's time that all these AR 'conservationists' volunteer themselves for
food at the tiger farms!

Tim Stoffel