- Western tourists and businessmen who are illegally buying
tiger skins in China are responsible for the slaughter of one of the world's
most endangered species, an investigation by a British charity has found.
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- Britons are among many European customers who pay up
to £5,500 for the tiger skins to use as rugs, sofa covers or wall
hangings, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London
charity.
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- "The buyers see the skins - complete with the animal's
head - as the ultimate in home decor, but they are pushing the tiger into
extinction," a spokesman said.
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- The investigation by the charity found that the tiger
skin trade had grown 10-fold in the past five years. Investigators also
identified a growing trade in leopard and otter pelts, with Europeans again
among the main buyers. Wealthy Chinese are also buying many of these and
the tiger skins.
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- "The skin trade is spiralling out of control,"
the agency says in a report, The Tiger Skin Trail, to be published at the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) conference
in Bangkok, Thailand, this week.
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- The scale of the problem was revealed when customs officials
in Tibet seized a record £660,000 worth of pelts in October last
year. The haul, from a single lorry, included 31 tigers, 581 leopards and
778 otters.
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- "Five years ago the seizures involved two or three
tigers and perhaps 50 leopards," the agency spokesman said. "Now
we are looking at 31 tigers and nearly 600 leopards.
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- "It's an alarming increase. The criminals are becoming
more brazen because demand is growing and they are being allowed to get
away with it."
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- The agency will warn Cites members that India's tiger
population will be wiped out completely unless action is taken to stop
the "rampant" skin trade.
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- The world's wild tiger population has fallen from about
100,000 a century ago to fewer than 5,000 today. Half of the tigers are
in India with the rest scattered across south Asia and the Far East.
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- The spokesman said that the European buyers were likely
to include tourists, businessmen, expatriates and diplomats. It was "almost
certain" that British people were involved. "It's unbelievable
that ignorant Europeans still want to buy tiger and leopard skins to drape
over their couch or put on their floors as rugs," the spokesman said.
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- "With all the media coverage given to endangered
species there is no excuse for purchasing them as so-called luxury items.
These animals are so critically endangered that each individual is vital
to the survival of its species."
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- British police are investigating the case of a full tiger
skin advertised for sale on eBay, the online auction site. A photograph
accompanying the advertisement showed the skin being used as a bed cover.
Antique tiger skins - those that date from before 1947 - can be sold legally
in Britain, provided that the owner has a permit from the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Permits are issued only if the owner
has documents to prove the skin's age.
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- The Indian tigers are poisoned, shot or snared by poachers
and sold to traders who smuggle them into China via Nepal. Most are taken
to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, an "autonomous region" of China,
and then are moved on to different regions of China or taken out of the
country.
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- The investigators were shocked to find that the skins
were on sale openly. The skins can be taken out of China easily because
they are expertly tanned and cured so that they can be folded into suitcases.
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- The trade is run by ruthless and highly organised gangs,
according to the report. The Tibet seizures represent "a tiny fraction"
of the total number of tiger skins being smuggled into China. Conviction
rates are low. Between 1994 and 2003 more than 1,400 arrests were made
in connection with 784 skin seizures - including 684 tigers and 2,336 leopards
- but only 14 people were convicted and sentenced.
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- Those caught with tiger skins face up to 10 years in
jail but they are invariably "middlemen", so afraid of their
masters that they prefer to go to jail rather than name them in return
for leniency.
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- The report says that the skin trade has been allowed
to flourish because of "a lack of political will to address the problem".
It criticises the "isolated seizures that punctuate the criminals'
otherwise smooth business affairs", and adds: "None of the seizures
has been a deterrent and the organised criminal networks have continued
unabated."
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- Four years ago the British Government offered India £20,000
to fund a special unit to combat wildlife crime. The offer has yet to be
taken up by the Indian government.
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- The skin trade is wrecking initiatives introduced in
recent years to protect the tiger, the agency says. Many countries have
banned the manufacture and sale of tiger parts and products - often used
in traditional Chinese medicines - in an attempt to kill the market for
tiger bones.
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- The soaring demand for skins is, however, undermining
that conservation work. "While the tiger bones trade has been reduced
the survival of wild tigers is threatened by a burgeoning trade in skins,"
the report says.
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- At the Cites conference the agency will call for specialised
"enforcement units" to be set up in India, Nepal and China, and
improved cross-border co-operation.
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- It will also urge China to increase manual luggage inspections
at the main airports in Tibet and in Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces, and
to put up posters warning travellers that it is illegal to buy animal skins.
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- Measures to protect the tiger (Panthera tigris) from
hunting and trade were first adopted in the 1970s and the tiger has been
on Cites's Appendix I - which lists the most endangered species - since
1975.
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