Tigrons de 10 jours tués et vendus en Angleterre...

[Animal 0]

(Malaisie) Tigrons de 10 jours tués et vendus comme ornements en Angleterre...

18 November 2006

TEN-DAY-OLD TIGER CUB, KILLED, STUFFED AND SOLD IN UK FOR £20,000

By Jeff Edwards Chief Crime Correspondent
A BABY tiger stares lifelessly after being illegally slaughtered, stuffed and put on sale in Britain.

The 10-day-old cub was one of two mounted on plinths and offered as grotesque £20,000-a-piece ornaments.

The helpless creatures were so young they would have still been blind when they were killed by poachers.

Police put them on display yesterday as they launched a new blitz on the growing illegal trade in rare animals - now worth £10billion.


Their campaign is being backed by four wildlife charities as well as stars such as Ricky Gervais.


Comic Ricky, 45, said: "I find it incredible that anyone would want to buy a product containing endangered animals. It's not just illegal, it's sick and perverse."


The cubs were among 65 items seized at just one store, Get Stuffed in Islington, North London. Owner Robert Sclare got six months in jail.


Scotland Yard's Wildlife Crime Unit has seized more 30,000 artefacts in the past two years.


The sickening haul includes a polar bear rug, rhino horn, gorilla, chimp and wolf. Swoops have also found ivory shaving brushes at posh London barbershop Geo F Trumper and a £15 purse from elephant skin.


Geo F Trumper, which has a Royal Warrant, was last month fined £10,000 for stocking 24 ivory goods. Imports of the product were outlawed in 1990.


Police fear the rise in trafficking is fuelled by the popularity of Chinese alternative remedies, often made from species such as tigers and rhinos.


They want London's 1,000 Chinese medicine shops to back their drive.


The trade in rare species, run by organised crime, has contributed to the dramatic decline in their numbers.


Fewer than 5,000 tigers are left in the wild, down from 100,000 in 1900, and just 20,000 polar bears. Some 98 per cent of black rhinos have been wiped out since 1970 because of demand for their horns - used to make aphrodisiacs.

Police believe London is a major hub of the world trade, with Met Deputy Asst Commissioner Janet Williams saying the capital could "play a part in helping to stop it".
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Figures don't always paint actual picture
19 Nov 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: With each tiger fetching between RM60,000 and RM100,000 in the black market, poachers are still going in for the kill.

Although tiger meat reportedly shows up regularly on the menus of exotic food restaurants, the official tiger poaching rate remains at one per year.



Since 2001, there has only been eight cases involving tiger and tiger parts according to official statistics from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan).

"We hear that there are more, but until it’s proven, we treat it as rumours," said Perhilitan Biodiversity Conservation Division principal assistant director Abd Kadir Abu Hashim.

The eight cases make up slightly over 0.2 per cent of 3,612 recorded by the department’s enforcement personnel between 2001 and 2005.

The most recent case was last year’s tiger-in-fridge case. The Malayan Tiger, which was about five years old, was caught in a wire trap, shot repeatedly and chopped into four pieces before being stored in a fridge.

Plastics factory worker Ang Chun Tan was fined RM7,000, a penalty that sparked a nationwide outcry that harsher penalties ought to be imposed.

The maximum penalty under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 is a RM15,000 fine, and a jail term not exceeding five years.

Perhilitan Law and Enforcement director Misliah Mohamad Basir said that current measures include the establishment of a wildlife crime unit, increasing local support and intensifying border controls.

"We have identified 17 entry and exit points in nine states. These are to be manned at all times."

Misliah added that they have also increased inter-agency co-operation, namely with the Customs Department, Anti-Smuggling Unit, Immigration Department and Royal Malaysian Police. The army has also been collaborating since 2001.

Tigers became a totally protected species here in 1976. Two years ago, the Malayan Tiger was declared a unique sub-species found only in the Malay Peninsula.

Malaysia has between 500 and 1,500 tigers living in the wild.