Vietnamese men charged with poisoning, stealing tiger from zoo

August 21, 2006

Deutsche Presse Agentur

Monday August 21, 2006

Hanoi - Four Vietnamese men have been arrested on charges of poisoning an

endangered tiger, disemboweling it and stealing the carcass from a zoo in

southern Vietnam, police said Monday.

The four men, all in their 20s, admitted feeding the tiger poisoned meat and

selling the body for 11,250 dollars to a man in Ho Chi Minh City, according

to Dang Quang Minh, head of police social crime investigations in southern

Tien Giang province. The buyer, Nguyen Khac Diep, 53, was arrested last week

after police found the carcass in a refrigerator in his home, Minh said.

The four tiger thieves - Nguyen Van Cung, 21, Pham Phu Loi, 21, Luu Ngoc

Tan, 23, and Nguyen Van Chat, 22 - were apprehended Saturday in Dong Nai

province, 100 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City.

Only a few hundred tigers are left in Vietnam, and the theft two months ago

of the big cat from Dong Tam Snake Farm caused outrage inTien Giang. The

thieves not only killed the tiger, but disemboweled it before carrying away

the body, leaving a pile of bloody organs in its cage.

Tiger bones and other parts are often used in traditional Vietnamese

medicine. " Tiger glue " - made from boiling the bones of the tiger and said

to restore the bones of the elderly - can sell for as much as 5,000 dollars

a kilogram on the black market.

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