Tigers, bears and rhino traded in London/Operation Charm

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Tigers, bears and rhino traded in London

By Martina Smit

Friday 17th November 2006

 

A tiger cub slaughtered and stuffed before his eyes could open, a polar bear rug

on sale in Notting Hill and a rhino horn seized in Kensington today proved

London's booming trade in illegal animal products.

 

Over the last decade, the Met's wildlife crackdown Operation Charm has seized

more than 30,000 illegal animal items in the capital.

 

Some of the more bizarre items were:

 

A tiger cub of a few days old, stuffed and put up for sale for £20,000. The cub

was one of 65 stuffed animals found at Get Stuffed, a taxidermy shop in

Islington. Six years ago dealer Robert Sklare was sentenced to six months for

forging licenses, but he has since reopened his north London store.

 

A polar bear rug found at a dealer in Notting Hill, who claimed it was 40 years

old. But the condition of the nylon lining proved it was new. The dealer was

convicted under custom laws.

 

A haul of 138 shahtoosh shawls, worth over £350,000, at an exclusive Mayfair

shop. About 1,000 of the rare Tibetan antelope had to be killed - no less than

2% of the 50,000 still left in the wild. But the Renaissance Corporation in

South Audley Street was fined a paltry £1,500.

 

In 1996 undercover police seized about 120 rhinoceros horns in Kensington, west

London. The collection, worth nearly £3 million, represented almost 1% of the

world's rhino population. Two men were jailed for a total of two years.

 

Two hawksbill turtle shells were found hanging on a wall during a drugs raid in

south-east London last year.

 

Last month a Royal barber in Mayfair, George F Trumper Ltd, was fined £10,000

for selling illegal ivory shaving brushes for up to £1,100 each.

 

Now police are targeting the growing use of illegal animals in traditional

remedies with a hard-hitting poster campaign.

 

Ounce for ounce, endangered species products like bear bile, rhino horn and musk

cost more than gold.

 

The worldwide market in traditional Chinese medicine is growing by 18% a year,

and in London such shops have become an everyday sight.

 

In the capital, the Met has seized plasters containing leopard bone, ointments

made from musk, rhino horn pills, tiger bone wine, tortoise shell tea and bear

bile shampoo.

 

Bear bile is tapped from the gall bladders of live Asiatic black bears held in

cages little bigger than themselves. Twice a day, up to 20ml of bile is " milked "

from each bear through a cut in their abdomen. The pain causes the bears to

moan, bang their heads and even chew their own paws.

 

There are estimated to be about 4,000 bears held on bile farms in Vietnam and

9,000 in China. More than half of them die, or are left to starve once they stop

producing bile.

 

Bear bile contains the acid Ursodiol, which breaks down gallstones. However,

according to the Met's wildlife crime unit, there are at least 54 herbal

alternatives.

 

Musk perfume, meanwhile, is taken from a gland in the abdomen of the male musk

deer, found in Siberia, and the Himalayas. About 40 deer must be slaughtered to

produce one kilogram of musk.

 

The growing demand for animal products has wiped out 98% of the world's black

rhino since 1970, and has seen tiger numbers drop from 100,000 in 1900 to less

than 5,000.

 

" It is quite unacceptable that illegal acts in London are contributing to the

decline of creatures like the tiger, " said Andy Fisher, the head of the Met's

wildlife crime unit.

 

" In Operation Charm we want to stop the illegal trade in these animals in

London. Anyone who persists in doing so could spend five years in prison. "

 

In Britain, it is illegal it is illegal to trade in any product that is made

from an endangered species, or even claims to be made from one.

 

Professor Bo-Ying Ma, President of the Federation of Traditional Chinese

Medicine, said his industry backed the crackdown. " We are not utilising or

selling such materials in any form. "

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

 

Look out for the Operation Charm sticker, which means a shop promises not to

sell endangered animal wares.

 

Ingredients must be listed on medicine. Check it for animal products, including

Os Tigris (tiger bone), Cornu Rhinoceri (rhinoceros horn), Fel Ursi (bear bile)

and Moschus (musk).

 

Be wary of products with pictures of endangered animals.

 

Report illegal products on the new Operation Charm website.

 

Photo:

Operation Charm's hard-hitting poster urges people not to buy endangered animal

wares

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http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/roundup/display.var.1029369.0.tigers_p\

olar_bears_and_rhino_traded_in_london.php

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Chinese medicine interest threatens rare species

By Matthew Jones

Fri 17 Nov 2006

 

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Britons are embracing traditional Chinese medicine

and unwittingly fuelling a $10 billion illegal trade in the world's most

endangered species, police said.

 

The market in London for products made from tiger bone, rhino horn and bear bile

has grown to such an extent that a special police taskforce is trying to stamp

it out.

 

" We cannot expect the international trade to stop while it continues here in

London, " Janet Williams, London's deputy assistant police commissioner, told a

news conference on Friday.

 

Rare breeds have been decimated, not just because of demand from China but also

Westerners wanting alternative treatments.

 

Since 1970, about 98 percent of the world's black rhino have been killed for

their horns -- largely to supply the Chinese medicine trade. And fewer than

5,000 tigers are estimated to be left in the wild, compared with 100,000 in

1990.

 

The Metropolitan Police launched Operation Charm in 1995 to tackle the trade,

and since then have seized over 30,000 endangered species items, most destined

for Chinese medicine.

 

But it is an uphill battle.

 

Andy Fisher, head of the Met's Wildlife Crime Unit, believes education is needed

alongside law enforcement.

 

" Many Westerners are now turning to Chinese medicine. It is a trendy

alternative, but few if any of them have any awareness of what is used in some

of the products they buy, " he said.

 

Most Chinese medicine practitioners do not use illegal products, but a

persistent minority does. And with the global Chinese medicine market growing by

18 percent a year, that minority can have a major impact.

 

The trade is highly lucrative. The world's largest seizure of rhino horns, 129,

occurred in 1996 in London's upscale South Kensington neighbourhood. With rhino

horn worth more than gold, ounce for ounce, the haul had a black market value of

millions of pounds.

 

SUPERSTITION AND GREED

 

Professor Bo-Ying Ma of the Federation of Traditional blames

superstition as well as greed.

 

" Many people often have the misconception that Chinese medicine has to use items

from endangered species, but this is totally wrong, " said Ma.

 

He said people demand tiger bone in their medicine because they mistakenly

believe they can tap the tiger's power. Alternatives to endangered species are

available, he said.

 

Olivia Loh, a conservationist, said Britons buying Chinese medicine should

demand to know the ingredients and should walk away if they have any doubts.

 

" We must tackle the demand side of the equation. Londoners can made a great

difference globally, " said Loh of the Active Conservation Awareness Programme.

 

The Met's Andy Fisher agrees.

 

" People are trafficking endangered species because people are buying it. If

there was no money to be made from killing these animals then they wouldn't

bother doing it. "

 

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L17166963 & WTmodLoc=Wo\

rld-R5-Alertnet-3

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Operation Charm

 

(In English and Chinese)

 

http://www.operationcharm.org/index.jsp