(CN) Chinese tiger breeding center facing dire financial straits

[Guest guest]

Financial woes at China's largest breeding center for the critically endangered

Siberian tiger have forced smaller feedings and other cuts in efforts to prepare

the cats to return to the wild, the official Xinhua News Agency reported

Wednesday.

 

The Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center has outstanding debts of 20 million yuan

(USD2.4 million) and continues to come up short due to a lack of help from the

government, the report said.

 

The center and the nearby Harbin Siberian Tiger Park are home to 160 Siberian

tigers and expect another 60 cubs to be born this year. However, staff may try

to curb births due to the financial problems, Xinhua quoted director Wang

Ligang as saying.

 

Numbers of Siberian tigers have been devastated over recent decades by poaching

and destruction of forest habitat in northeastern China and the Russian Far

East. Approximately 500 survive, 200 of those in captivity, the report said.

 

Wang said the center needs 15 million yuan (USD1.8 million) a year to keep the

animals and pay staff, but tourism brings in only 9 million yuan (USD1.1

million). Government funding fails to make up the difference.

 

Center staff hope to earn additional money by leasing tigers to zoos, raising

donations from the public and building new attractions that present the tigers

without cages, the report said.

 

Staff at the center were unreachable for comment.

 

[More about Hengdaohezi at: http://www.5tigers.org/China/conrad.htm ]

[Guest guest]

This is so sad, do you think it's worth writing to their govt urging more

funds be spent on these gorgeous creatures?

 

I also noted this.. “In 1992, the government bowed to international pressure

and imposed a ban on trade in parts of the endangered species, supporting

the Convention of the International Treaty of Endangered Species (CITES).

Officials from the center cried foul, complaining to the China Youth Daily

that Beijing's ban on sales of tiger products had forced it to stop culling

tigers and run into debt.”

 

So if you do want to write a letter you might want to also point out that

they need more FUNDS and culling should NOT be an option.

 

I have looked for almost an hour in the search for contact details for the

Chinese Ministry of Forestry or Tourism, but no luck. Does anyone have these

contact details by chance? Or know where to get them?

 

Christine

 

 

Dr John Wedderburn [john]

Saturday, 20 January 2001 19:49

AAPN List

(CN) Chinese tiger breeding center facing dire financial

straits

 

 

Financial woes at China's largest breeding center for the critically

endangered Siberian tiger have forced smaller feedings and other cuts in

efforts to prepare the cats to return to the wild, the official Xinhua News

Agency reported Wednesday.

 

The Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center has outstanding debts of 20 million

yuan (USD2.4 million) and continues to come up short due to a lack of help

from the government, the report said.

 

The center and the nearby Harbin Siberian Tiger Park are home to 160

Siberian tigers and expect another 60 cubs to be born this year. However,

staff may try to curb births due to the financial problems, Xinhua quoted

director Wang Ligang as saying.

 

Numbers of Siberian tigers have been devastated over recent decades by

poaching and destruction of forest habitat in northeastern China and the

Russian Far East. Approximately 500 survive, 200 of those in captivity, the

report said.

 

Wang said the center needs 15 million yuan (USD1.8 million) a year to keep

the animals and pay staff, but tourism brings in only 9 million yuan

(USD1.1 million). Government funding fails to make up the difference.

 

Center staff hope to earn additional money by leasing tigers to zoos,

raising donations from the public and building new attractions that present

the tigers without cages, the report said.

 

Staff at the center were unreachable for comment.

 

[More about Hengdaohezi at: http://www.5tigers.org/China/conrad.htm ]