Conservationists: Tiger farms 'must be outlawed'

12 April 2012

Tiger farms should be shut because they are inhumane and fuel demand for their bones and skin for medicines, the director of the Global Tiger Initiative said today.

A conference in Thailand of delegates from 13 countries where tigers exist heard there are farms in China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.

Farmers say the cats in captivity helps reduce the illegal trade in tiger parts which are used in traditional medicine, but environmentalists say it only stimulates further smuggling.

"Our position is that tiger farms as an animal practice are cruel. They fan the potential use of tiger parts. That is extremely dangerous because that would continue to spur demand," said the World Bank's Keshav Varma, who is the programme director for the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 with the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups.

Wild tiger numbers have plummeted from an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to less than 3,600.

China is believed to be home to 5,000 domestic tigers, and farms thrive despite the government banning the trade in tiger parts in 1993. It has imposed stiff sentences on offenders and ordered pharmacies to empty their shelves of tiger medications purported to cure ailments from convulsions to skin disease and to increase sexual potency.

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