Biggest Threat to Tigers is China's Appetite for Parts:

[amborin]

.....the Year of the Tiger, which begins Sunday, could be a lousy year for the estimated 3,200 tigers that still roam the world’s diminishing forests........snip


......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.

Shrinking habitat remains a daunting challenge, but conservationists say the biggest threat to Asia’s largest predator is the Chinese appetite for tiger parts. Despite a government ban on the trade since 1993, there is a robust market for tiger bones, traditionally prized for their healing and aphrodisiac qualities, and tiger skins, which have become cherished trophies among China’s nouveau riche.

With pelts selling for $20,000 and a single paw worth as much as $1,000, the value of a dead tiger has never been higher, say those who investigate the trade. Last month the Indian government announced a surge in killings of tigers by poachers, with 88 found dead in 2009, double the previous year. Because figures are based on carcasses found on reserves or tiger parts seized at border crossings, conservationists say the true number is far higher.

“All of the demand for tiger parts is coming from China,” said Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “Unless the Chinese change their attitude, the tiger has no future on this earth.”

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/world/asia/13tiger.html?emc=eta1

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Thoroughly repugnant. MAGIC DOESN'T WORK, YOU FOOLS!!

I hate the framing here -- "traditionally prized for their healing and aphrodisiac qualities" -- as if it's offensive to call it FUCKING STUPID SUPERSTITION, which is exactly what it is.

They didn't even bother to use the phrase "purported healing and aphrodisiac qualities".

People are so afraid of being perceived as culturally biased that they won't criticize superstitious nonsense even when it's obviously complete -- and harmful -- nonsense.

[amborin]

2. agree!

and that PC-ness indirectly validates the b.s.

[Nihil]

3. K & R for unpleasant truths. (n/t)

[Lorien]

4. Indeed. China is great at cheap knockofs. It's time for them to start making Viagra

and leave the Big Cats alone!

[AlecBGreen]

5. I was cured by traditional chinese medicine

its not all bunk and hoo-ha and superstition.

Dont misunderstand me though... buying tiger parts to get a boner is not acceptable. They (the Chinese) are like a giant vaccuum sucking up every rare plant and animal they can get their hands on. Its no wonder nearly every wild animal in that country is extinct. Its eerie how silent and still the countryside is.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. *Some* herbal remedies are genuine, but ...

things based on "sympathetic magic" are not. "Eat the tiger, and gain his strength" has no basis in fact.

Interestingly, there is a cucumber-like plant in the Middle East that shoots out its seeds. The obvious resemblance to an ejaculating penis led to its being widely touted as the basis of an elixir for virility. It turns out that it actually impairs sperm motility, and the chemical(s) responsible have been studied for a possible "male birth control" medicine. So much for sympathetic magic.


(Many of these Chinese remedies are mixtures of so many different components that they only have to get lucky with one; the other components are either inert filler or genuinely harmful. It's easy to give traditional medicine *too much* credit.)

[AlecBGreen]

8. some thoughts

"Eat the tiger, and gain his strength" has no basis in fact.

dont forget the placebo affect. "here, take this, it will make you X" actually has an effect, especially if the source (a shaman/witch doctor/herbalist/etc) is well regarded by the patient.

It turns out that it actually impairs sperm motility, and the chemical(s) responsible have been studied for a possible "male birth control" medicine

lol. i wish tigers produced the same chemical, then maybe they could live in peace.

It's easy to give traditional medicine *too much* credit.

i agree, but some give it too little :) ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology are rapidly growing fields. western-trained scientists are now seeking out traditional doctors in "primitive" tribes to plumb the depths of their knowledge. while western civilization and the scientific method have taught us much in a short period of time, there is no substituion for thousands of years of observation and trial-&-error.

[Nihil]

9. In which case you *still* don't need the tiger ...

>> "Eat the tiger, and gain his strength" has no basis in fact.
>
> dont forget the placebo affect. "here, take this, it will make you X"
> actually has an effect, especially if the source (a shaman/witch
> doctor/herbalist/etc) is well regarded by the patient.

Fine so give them powdered chalk every time instead of maintaining
a disgusting demand for tiger dicks.

:grr:

(ETA: I'm not getting at you Alec, I understand what you're saying
and support many of the alternative approaches to treatment but I am
just so angry that people today can still do this to tigers, bears,
all of the other creatures simply because they are gullible idiots.)

[amborin]

7. yes, no birds, starting with mao