The Premier of China, Wen Jiabao has publicly stated that he is committed to saving the wild tiger. However, his government is allowing trade in tiger skins from tiger farms and skins taken before poaching was outlawed. This trade is acting as a smokescreen for skins taken by killing wild tigers. If China does not stop this trade, the wild tiger is doomed.Image and text from the TigerTime website, where you can sign a petition "I appeal to Premier Wen Jiabao to send a clear message to his government, calling for an end to all tiger trade within China. This is to include a call for a zero tolerance policy applied to all trade of all parts and derivatives of tiger and other protected Asian big cats, from all sources."
The reason for doing this is explained in the imgur image below...
... and discussed in this Reddit thread. If you don't want to sign the petition, at least don't buy or drink the wine.
That is terrible. However....
ReplyDeleteI am not certain that outright bans actually facilitate the salvation of endangered species when there is a demand for the product. (I'm speaking of the skins, not the horrific starvation of animals.)
In N. America, for example, the vigorous enforcement of 'bag limits' and licensing for hunting has actually greatly increased the white tail deer herd and elk herds. In my opinion, if you can get conservationists involved in the maintenance of wild populations with sustainable bag limits, you have a better chance at success. Even if that means a moratorium on hunting for several years to allow the numbers to recoup.
Made me physically ill to look at that image.
ReplyDeleteone can only hope that Karma happens....
ReplyDeleteI hope I live long enough to see the end of torturing and killing animals to satisfy folk beliefs (old wives' tales) for potency, etc.
ReplyDeleteI wish that you would perhaps put a warning on posts like this and then provide a link to the story without any pics on your blog. Posts like this and the one about the Condors keep me up at night because I know that there's little to nothing I can do about this. Sure, I can boycott the wine....but I don't drink. And I can sign the petition....but where does the petition go? Does it do anything? Who cares about a bunch of signatures? The bottom line is that there are horrible horrible things being done to animals, the earth and other people every day, everywhere, and there's f*ck all to be done about it. There will always be horrible horrible things being done to animals, the earth, and other people as long as there are people in the world.
ReplyDeleteOur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Delete-Martin Luther King, Jr.
There's no arguing this is terrible.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth also directing some empathy and action towards improving the lot of animals raised for food in North America. Battery hens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_cage) the most obvious (see esp practices such as withholding food and water for 7-10 days to trigger forced molting, 'reinvigorating' the hen for better egg laying, beak trimming and so on), but pigs, geese being raised for pate de fois gras, veal calves...it's a long list of cruel behaviours.
One doesn't have to be a vegetarian, only to at least want to improve the lot of those raised for food.
Anonymous, while true we can't fix, or even impact, every instance, I am optimistic enough to consider that everyone should do what they can, and over time, the big picture *will* improve. And every small improvement is an important step...to the person or animal directly affected, at the very least.
What Anonymous at February 13, 2013 at 5:45 PM said. This image made me sick and it made me cry. I tried to think of some practical action I could take to help that particular tiger and the only thing I could think of was to go there and offer myself as food. I signed the petition, I gave some money but I don't think that's going to change anything. As long as some stupid person thinks that an animal's bones are going to heal what ails him, animals are going to be poached and killed. And someone will always be willing to pay money for quack cures because people are idiots.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked when I saw the picture. Such a proud animal..Signed the petition of course. This has to be stopped!
ReplyDelete