[animalnepal] Tigers from Nepal might end up in Chinese wine...

[Guest guest]

Another interesting argument that supports the idea put forward by a recent

post from Keith Mann on AAPN@Yayoogroups that the animal rights movement is

besieged by a force called ³divide and conquer² where activism is diluted

with postulates that go something like this: ethical humane slaughter is

still slaughter. To apply that here, one could say that the farming of Tiger

is no different then the farming of Buffalo (which is legal in the USA).

The reasons for the farming are also no different at the root: ancient

mystical Chinese belief that Tiger meat or bone or eyeballs made into wine

is good for human health vs. USFDA-approved theories that bovine meat

products are good for you too. You just have two slightly different

cultural perspectives on the issue of farm-bred animals. And don¹t we

(westerners and south Asians) just love to bash the Chinese at every

opportunity! The points about farm-bred tigers increasing the risk of wild

Tiger persecution is probably valid, but there are supposedly mechanisms in

place there for protection and there are laws on the books, so what¹s the

problem after the millions of dollars already spent? Could it be that it¹s

easier to focus on something like Chinese farm-bred tigers then to actually

save wild ones? I am not criticizing activists and organizations for the

sake of it, but to point out the blatant hypocrisy in so many of our

activities and our misdirection in almost every other step taken to protect

animals. But Tiger is a wild animal u cry! Well, so was the Buffalo and the

Cow at some point in human evolution. So if u want to decry the fate of the

farm-bred tiger, why not decry the fate of all farm-bred animals at the same

time? Focus on the root of the problem - instead of circling the periphery

with racist outrage against one culture or the other (inmo).

 

Krypto and I walked by the local butcher stall this morning where a barrel

full of chickens were having their necks cut to supply the neighbourhood

with it¹s share of chicken-chili this afternoon. There was a crowd of

momo-shop vendors waiting in line with a pack of street dogs, all standing

patiently for their bit of the kill. I can¹t help but think that before

everyone goes running off to the Chinese embassy with placards and chants

for the farm-bred Tiger, why not start right at home at the butcher shop and

try and save some local chickens from the same life and the same death. Is a

chicken¹s life any more worthy then a tiger¹s? If you think yes, then ask

yourself why. Then you will truly know what Keith Mann means by divide and

conquer. You may also see the anti-wisdom in believing in good and evil.

Hell, u may even have an awakening and become a Buddha in this lifetime.

 

Stop all killing of any beings ­ NOW!

Jigme in Nepal

 

 

On 1/6/09 8:03 PM, " Lucia De Vries " <luciadevries wrote:

 

>

>

>

> Tiger Bone Wine

> An 2007 article by long term tiger and ITNC supporter Brian Weirum of The Fund

> for the Tiger appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.

> http://www.itnc.org/news.htm

> Ever wonder what happens to the tigers killed by poachers in India and Nepal?

> In some cases their bones are steeped in distilled spirits in China to produce

> an elixir that's as incomprehensible to Westerners as it is revered by

> devotees of traditional Chinese medicine: tiger bone wine.

> At a secret factory in China, a reporter for the South China Morning Post this

> past April found 600 tiger skeletons soaking in alcohol to produce 200,000

> bottles of wine. " We can't advertise our tiger wine in Beijing at the moment

> because the Olympics are coming up, " the sales manager at the Xiongsen Bear

> and Tiger Park in Guilin, Xhao Runghui, was quoted in the story as saying.

> " When the Olympics are over, we will have more freedom to market our wine.

> Foreigners just don't understand. Chinese people know that tiger is the best

> medicine in the world. It cures so many things. It makes you strong. It makes

> a man more virile. "

> The demand has, according to news reports, prompted Beijing to consider

> legalizing the trade in tiger parts, which China and other major nations have

> banned since 1993. " The ban is in place but won't be there forever, given the

> strong voices from tiger farmers, experts and society, " warned a deputy

> director at China's State Forestry Administration in Reuters last June.

>

> With its growing affluence, China is by far the world's largest market for

> illicit tiger parts. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, home to most of the

> world's remaining wild Royal Bengal tigers, have no tradition of using tiger

> parts in medicine or religion. As the supply of tigers was drying up in the

> Far East, a poaching crisis emerged in the early 1990s as tigers in the

> " protected " forests of South Asia were poached to satisfy the beliefs and

> customs of those thousands of miles away. And there's evidence that the

> Chinese hunger for tigers goes beyond traditional medicine. At a tiger forum

> in Kathmandu in April, DNA tests were introduced by the British television

> network ITN that proved tiger meat was being served at the restaurant that

> adjoins the Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Park.

> The " Tiger Park " is actually a tiger farm: The Chinese raise tigers in pens,

> as you would cattle or hogs, and there are now more tigers living on these

> farms than the estimated 3000 remaining in the wild.

>

> On the surface it seems like a good idea: Grow tigers domestically, so there's

> no incentive to kill those in the wild. This is one of the main arguments for

> dropping the ban on the sale of tiger parts. But this is a specious argument

> for the following reasons:

>

> €It's 10 times cheaper to kill a tiger in India and smuggle its parts to China

> than to raise one on a farm.

> €There is no way to distinguish between the bones ‹ or the skin, heart or

> penis ‹ of a wild tiger and those of a farm-raised tiger.

> €The international trade of endangered species -- from tigers and rhinos to

> birds and butterflies -- is second only to drug trafficking as the biggest

> source of illicit money worldwide. Wildlife crime syndicates operate all over

> Asia. The skin of the tiger a poacher was paid less than $1,000 to kill will

> fetch up to $10,000 in Lhasa, Tibet. These syndicates will not shut down their

> business networks and close their bank accounts because farms are breeding

> tigers in China.

> €Unleashing the market for tiger parts perpetuates a myth. Tiger claws are

> worn as an amulet for courage and good luck. Eyeballs rolled into pills are

> believed to cure epilepsy. The tail, when mixed with soup, is thought to cure

> diseases of the skin. Tiger penis soup is prized as an aphrodisiac. Bones are

> thought to cure rheumatism and prolong life.

> €There is no medical or scientific proof of the efficacy of tiger medicines,

> but centuries of beliefs and customs empowered by this myth die hard. To

> ingest the tiger, it is believed, is to gain some of its mythical strength and

> powers. To the true believer, therefore, wouldn't wild tigers always be

> preferable to farmed tigers?

>

> Concern over this issue prompted the 171-nation Convention on International

> Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), led by India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia and

> the United States, to adopt a resolution in June opposing the resumption of

> trade in tigers and mandated that China phase out their tiger farms. Anyone

> who has ever experienced a tiger in the wild would argue that farming one for

> medicine could not possibly be God's intended fate for this magnificent

> animal. No animal has been graced with a greater aura of power and majesty,

> both in myth and reality, than the tiger. Ironically, it is this prodigious

> mantle of respect that is threatening to lead it down an inexorable path to

> extinction.

>

> " When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, " wrote

> William Beebe, " another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one

> can be again. "

>

 

-- Paul Reitman, CEO

Phoenix Studios Nepal

Mobile: 9841589797

 

www.phoenixstudios.com.np/corporate