Tiger Farms in China Feed Thirst for Parts

I don’t normally re-post information here, but since my Blog seems to have fallen by the wayside of late (my interests seem to lead me into posting in my other Blogs), this seemed like the perfect place to mention something that disturbs me on an almost primal level. It’s  the Chinese’s appetite for tiger parts. Despite a government ban on the trade since 1993, there’s a healthy market for tiger bones, which are traditionally prized for their healing and aphrodisiac qualities, and tiger skins, which have become trophies among China’s nouveau riche.
With as few as 20 in the wild in China, the country’s tigers are a few gun blasts away from extinction, and in India poachers are making quick work of the tiger population, the world’s largest. The number there, around 1,400, is about half that of a decade ago and a fraction of the 100,000 that roamed the subcontinent in the early 20th century. It’s inconceivable to me that, in a modern age and with China emerging as a global power, a species is on the verge of extinction because there are people who believe they have magical healing powers.
I greatly recommend that anyone who cares about this issue read an article by Andrew Jacobs that’s been posted on the NY Times web site. If it doesn’t chill you to the bone, you’re not a human being.