Fw: More grim news for Tigers: Thailand Fuels Tiger Parts Trade

[Guest guest]

Thailand Trade Pushes Tiger Penis Pills

BANGKOK, Thailand, June 18, 2001 (ENS) - Authorities in Thailand are

failing to enforce domestic and international legislation that bans

trade in tiger body parts, a new report by undercover investigators from

the Environmental Investigation Agency reveals. As a result, tiger

parts, tiger penis pills, and tiger bone pills are widely available in

Bangkok and across the borders with Cambodia, Burma and China.

 

The agency, a non-profit environmental organization with offices in

Washington, DC and London, England, is bringing its evidence tomorrow to

the governing body of the United Nations Convention for International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which is holding its annual meeting

in Paris.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is calling on the CITES

Steering Committee to immediately dispatch a technical and political

mission to Thailand to review legislation and enforcement activities it

did during a previous series of missions from which Thailand was

omitted.

Thailand's domestic legislation bans the hunting of wild tigers and

trade in parts whether wild or captive bred. Under the CITES treaty to

which Thailand is a signatory, all international commercial trade in

tigers is banned.

The report reveals that Thailand has a thriving trade in both the import

and export of tiger products and derivatives, and an established

domestic industry manufacturing tiger products for a growing internal

and international market. Customers believe that ingesting tiger penis

pills will make them more virile, and tiger bone pills are believed to

relieve symptoms of rheumatism.

Products found for sale include raw tiger bone at $6.60 per gram, tiger

bone pills at $5.20 and $2.04, tiger penis pills at $6.40, and tiger

based compound, locally known as " yao gao " to mix with liquor at $5.40.

Some store owners claimed the tiger parts came from China, but others

admitted to EIA investigators that their products are secretly made in

Thailand and exported to China.

EIA identified three Thai factories: Zung Seng Heng16, Ouay Un and Heng

Tien Huat, which manufacture and distribute tiger based derivatives for

a domestic and international market.

 

Debbie Banks, senior campaigner with EIA, said, " Thailand is trading the

world's few remaining wild tigers into extinction. There is no

enforcement of their existing legislation to prevent illegal trade, and

they have consistently resisted international pressure to tackle this

urgent problem. " " Illegal trade from captive bred tigers poses an

increasing threat as it fuels a demand for tigers on the international

black market, and while this exists the few tigers left in the wild will

not be safe, " Banks said.

In 1995 the Thai government stated " it is [our policy] to suppress the

trade in tiger parts and to investigate any claim of tiger parts being

used or sold in Thailand for any reason. "

But the EIA report documents the complete lack of transparency regarding

the regulation and monitoring of Thailand's tiger breeding centers,

including the world famous Sri Racha Tiger Zoo. Banks says this raises

serious concerns internationally regarding the purpose and activities of

these centers.

 

EIA investigations also point to an alleged thriving trade in live

tigers with neighboring countries.

The tiger's global population has plummeted by 95 percent in the last

100 years. The tiger is critically endangered, there may be fewer than

5,000 tigers left in the wild.

Thailand was widely considered to be the primary range of the

Indo-Chinese sub-species of tiger. In 1998 there was an estimated 250 to

501 Indo-Chinese tigers left in the wild. Now there may be as few 150,

the EIA report estimates.

Between 1990 and 1994, Thailand imported 1650 cartons of tiger based

derivatives from China. From 1977 to 1997, 58 shipments of tiger

derivatives were seized being exported from Thailand to Europe, New

Zealand, Australia and the Philippines. No recent data is available

because Thailand has failed to submit annual reports on trade in animals

and their parts for 1998 and 1999.

EIA is calling on the government of Thailand to immediately investigate

and close down factories producing tiger bone products. The conservation

organization is urging the Thai government to comply with CITES

recommendations to amend existing legislation to include the prohibition

of the sale of products claiming to containing tiger parts or

derivatives.

© Environment News Service (ENS) 2001. .