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International Tiger Coalition: Statement
about 20/20's program suggesting that tigers be farmed
Tiger Farms: A TICKET TO EXTINCTION
ABC’s 20/20 promotes flawed economics and false conservation value, says International Tiger Coalition
Washington DC – The International Tiger Coalition (ITC), an international group of organizations committed to ending tiger trade, rejects the false and deeply flawed argument that tigers bred on industrialized farms can save wild tigers as presented on ABC’s 20/20 tonight.
Tiger farms were established and are managed primarily for commercial trade, not conservation, driven by profit from the sales of tiger-bone wine and skins. At present, all commercial trade in tigers and their products is illegal. But as long as there are tiger farms that promise a future reopening of tiger trade, the ban cannot be effective.
Since initiating a domestic ban on tiger trade in 1993, the Chinese government has removed tiger bone as an ingredient in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pharmacopeia and invested in the development of effective alternative medicines and public awareness campaigns. It has been very effective in protecting wild tigers by stopping the previously legal market, reducing demand and allowing some fragile tiger populations to stabilize, such as the Siberian tiger in the Russian Far East.
A contingent of business owners with financial interest in large-scale tiger farms and their supporters are now pushing China to rescind the ban. Permitting even a limited trade in farmed tigers within China will undermine decades of conservation efforts across the range of the tiger by reigniting a market demand that has nearly been extinguished and increase poaching of wild tigers.
Poaching will always be too cost-competitive an option to ignore: consider the price of a bullet, trap or poison to kill a wild tiger against an estimated US$4,000 to US$10,000 to raise a farmed tiger to maturity. Wild-sourced products are also consistently perceived to be superior by consumers, a situation that has resulted in wild Asiatic black bears being poached despite the saturation of the Chinese market with bear bile from farmed bears.
Finally, the notion that tigers bred on a farm can be reintroduced to the wild, thus contributing to the survival of wild populations, has no factual basis. Farmed tigers are likely to be too genetically and behaviorally compromised to be released into the wild.
Farming tigers for trade will only hasten the irreplaceable loss of a species on the brink. With improved enforcement, existing bans can wipe out tiger trade before tiger trade wipes out wild tigers.
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QUOTES:
“It is inconceivable that profit and the bottom line was the only lens through which 20/20 approached the issue of tiger farming,” said Grace Gabriel, Asia Regional Director of IFAW and ITC member, who was interviewed by the show. “Every player in that trade chain is criminally responsible for the depletion of tigers in the wild, from poachers to smugglers to traders and to those who promote tiger trade: investors and owners of tiger farms.”
“Unfortunately, 20/20 focused on sensational and unproven free-market theories applied to tiger farming instead of presenting a balanced report on the inherent risks to the tiger’s very survival in the wild,” said Judy Mills of Conservation International and Moderator of the ITC, who was interviewed on the show. “All our science and studies indicate that opening tiger trade and encouraging tiger farms is bad news for wild tigers and by extension, for people and the planet.”
Note to editors:
B-roll (TRT: 2.06, NATSOT): http://www.divshare.com/download/7307598-cf7
High-resolution images: http://www.savethetigerfund.org/Content/NavigationMenu2/News/MediaKits/TigerFarmMediaKit/default.htm
The population of wild tigers has plummeted from 100,000 a century ago to around 4,000 today. China, the country where the tiger species is believed to have originated, has fewer than 25 tigers left in the wild along its borders with Russia and Laos. China’s population of tigers on its border with Russia could recover—as long as trade remains closed within China.
Tigers are vital to the health of ecosystems. The loss of these flagship species impacts biodiversity, deprives nations of rightful revenue from tourism and agriculture, and puts food security and the health of people at risk.
Tigers are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which bans the international trade of tigers, their parts and derivatives, for commercial purposes. In 2007, the 171 CITES member governments decided by consensus that tigers should not be bred in farms for their parts and products—because they agreed tiger farming threatens the survival of wild tigers.
A 2007 poll in China by Save the Tiger Fund found that 90 percent of Chinese people favor keeping the tiger trade ban in place for the sake of wild tigers and China’s international image. Legitimate Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners have also moved away from using tiger bone in medicine.
A 2007 survey by TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade programme of WWF and IUCN) of over 500 retail TCM shops in China showed that hardly any shops stock tiger bone as medicine. Of 518 shops, only 2.5 percent claim availability of tiger bone and 64 percent are aware of the trade ban. Today, TCM colleges no longer teach the use of tiger bone as medicine, and legitimate, law-abiding practitioners around the world no longer use tiger bone.
For more information:
International Tiger Coalition: Trishna GURUNG, WWF E: trishna.gurung@wwfus.org T: 202-203-8863
Conservation International: Judy Mills E: j.mills@conservation.org T: 202-674-4588
International Fund for Animal Welfare: Grace Gabriel E: ggabriel@ifaw.org T: 508-496-4471
The Facts of Tiger Farming
Tiger farming is a threat to safety of wild tigers. Otherwise, tiger farming will make the king of the jungle − and the jungle − disappear forever.
Bans on tiger trade have nearly stopped the killing of wild tigers for their skins and bones. Improving enforcement and public awareness of these bans can end tiger trade once and for all, allowing tigers to thrive in the wild.
When we save wild tigers, we save the rich forests in which they live, with all of their climate-cooling trees, fresh water, herbal medicines and all the other irreplaceable resources needed for a healthy human society and a healthy planet.
We will save wild tigers, if we stop trade in tiger parts and products from all sources, including tiger farms.
FACT: Tiger trade bans work.
• China’s 16-year tiger trade ban has been an overwhelming success in reducing trade and demand.
• Bans on tiger trade have helped Russia’s tiger population recover and other wild tiger populations to persist.
• Trade bans will only work if they are enforced and backed up with demand reduction campaigns.
FACT: Tiger conservation works.
• Traditional tiger conservation methods work when they have adequate political and financial support.
• Protection of tigers and their habitat and prey do stabilize wild tiger populations.
• Protecting wild tigers protects large tracts of the world’s most valuable natural resources.
FACT: Legalizing tiger farming will increase killing of wild tigers.
• Legalizing trade in farmed tiger products will expand opportunities to sell parts and products from wild tigers.
• Illegal tiger trade is run by organized criminal networks, which will exploit loopholes opened by legalizing trade.
• Organized criminal networks will not give up illegal tiger trade just because farmed tiger products are available. Poaching tiger brings big gains to criminals with little risk.
FACT: Tiger products are not needed for human health.
• Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) gave up the use to tiger products 16 years ago.
• Leaders of the TCM community say they no longer need or want tiger bone, and China’s TCM agency has changed the official TCM pharmacopeia to remove tiger bone as a legitimate treatment.
• Alternatives to tiger bone are effective, plentiful, sustainable and embraced by TCM practitioners.
FACT: Legalizing tiger farming will stimulate demand for wild tiger parts & products.
• Tiger farming will reignite demand for tiger products among China’s 1.3 billion consumers.
• Since wild tiger bone is believed to be more effective, demand for the bones of wild tigers will go up, too.
• Rekindling China’s appetite for tiger products could quickly wipe out wild tiger populations.
FACT: Wild tigers can come back in the wild.
• Wild tigers breed like cats.
• Wild tigers can come back quickly when they have enough habitat, prey and protection from poachers.
• Wild tigers do not need outside help when they have plenty of food and shelter.
FACT: People benefit when tigers come back in the wild.
• Local people benefit economically when tiger are present and tourists can see wild tigers
• Protecting tigers and their habitats protect air, water and other forest resources that sustain the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.
FACT: Stopping tiger trade is a global issue.
• An international treaty signed by 174 countries prohibits international trade in tiger parts and products and discourages tiger farming.
• Countries with the largest wild tiger populations stand to lose the most if tiger farming is legalized.
• Any country that allows tiger farming and trade will bear responsibility for the loss of wild tigers.
END TIGER TRADE
Facts by International Tiger Coalition
More than 40 organizations, representing
millions of people around the world, are calling upon the Chinese government
to stand firm, to maintain its 14-year tiger trade ban, to close down tiger
farms and to increase investment in stopping illegal tiger trade.
Losing the wild tiger will be a shameful indictment on all of us. The success
of our collective desire to save wild tigers depends on action.
Tigers need the same kind of committed action that governments use when combating
gunrunners and drug traffickers, for it is often the very same criminals
that are smuggling tiger parts.
Our lives are connected to the tiger, through culture, religion, and the
ecosystems they live in that we depend upon.
Don't close your eyes to what's happening.
Ask your government ask China to make its tiger trade ban permanent.
End tiger trade.
The eyes of the world are watching.
The following are the number of people who have visited this page to learn more about China's Tiger Farms.
These photos are provided courtesy of 5tigers.org and the coalition to end the trade in tigers. Click on each for a print ready version. Sign Petition Now
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Tiger Farm Media Kit For Journalists
This page contains a selection of tiger farm images from the Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain village in Guilin, China. Farms like these are selling tiger bone wine and other products, and lobbying for the lifting of a 14-year ban on trade in tiger parts that would re-ignite demand for tiger parts that could jeopardize wild tiger populations. These images are from the International Tiger Coalition and may be freely used to illustrate any articles or reports on the issue, but please give appropriate credit to Save The Tiger Fund.
Stockpiles of Dead Tigers Should be Destroyed, Experts Urge China
27 July 2007, Beijing – Disturbing new images of tiger carcasses piled up in cold storage at one of China's largest “tiger farms” raise questions about enforcement of tiger trade bans in effect in China and internationally.
The photos were taken by participants invited to a government-sponsored workshop and tour of China 's two largest tiger “farms” earlier this month for international observers and scientists. The tour was held on the heels of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreeing in June that captive breeding of tigers should be restricted “only to conserving wild tigers.”
“What is the point of these stockpiles when tiger trade is banned inside and outside China?” asked Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, who participated in the State Forestry Administration's tiger farm tour and tiger trade workshop. “The 171 member nations of CITES made it clear last month that ‘tigers should not be bred for their parts and derivatives.'”
Among the carcasses piled in a refrigerated building at the tiger farm in Guilin , China , was a tiger that had been skinned and another that had been gutted. CITES officials formally asked China in June to investigate illegal sales of tiger meat at the Guilin farm.
Tiger “farms” in China house nearly 5,000 live tigers, and farm investors are pressuring the government to lift a ban on tiger trade so that they can profit from the sale of skins, bones and other body parts of tigers after they die. The Guilin farm's owner submitted a report to CITES saying he was saving the tigers in cold storage for the day when trade is legalized in China .
“Given that these bodies are commercially valuable and their sale is prohibited by law, they amount to contraband,” said Adam Roberts of Born Free Foundation. “Why not burn them the way other illegal wildlife products are burned in China?”
The 35 organizations of the International Tiger Coalition stand ready to offer guidance and technical support to China on shutting down its tiger farms and stepping up law enforcement efforts to stamp out illegal trade of tiger parts. The Coalition encourages China to invest more resources is increasing it wild tiger population, which could rebound quickly with proper protection.
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