Say Goodbye, Folks...Tigers Will Become Extinct....

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:15 pm

India's tigers will vanish within a few years, environmentalists warned in a stinging indictment of the Indian and Chinese governments, which they say have done nothing to stem the rapid decline.

Trade in Indian tigers is flourishing across the border in Chinese-controlled Tibet, where organized crime groups sell them for use in "traditional medicines" (that's the politically correct term, folks,) ceremonial clothing and souveniers, said the Wildlife Protection Society of India and the Internatioal Environmental Investigational Agency.

People who object to zoos should read this and realize that, with captive breeding programs, zoos are now ARKS!

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 3:48 am

SnoozeControl wrote: when you hear that a lot of these animals are being killed to supposedly improve some rich old Chinese man's sex life

I thought the main use was tiger bone, for rheumatism and arthritis.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:27 am

Just like the cheetah vanished from the same location...................

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:27 am

Drive around the ritzier neighborhoods in Las Vegas. Quite a few people have tigers in cages in their back yards. Disgusting. I you MUST buy a tiger, buy a pair, along with a couple hundred acres for them to play in. .... then go play with them. :sneaky:

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:35 am

Are they allowed to do that, AC?

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:42 am

:-1 Poor tigers :-1

Makes you unproud to be a human, doesn't it?

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:43 am

chonsigirl wrote: Are they allowed to do that, AC?I suppose if you have enough money you can get a waiver for anything.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:44 am

ArnoldLayne wrote: Acc, I'm sure that I read/heard that there are more tigers in private (not zoos) hands in Texas than there were in the wild.Seems that I heard the same thing a long time ago.

*off to Google*

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:47 am

Oh, that's a sad thought Arnold...................

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:49 am

TIGER, TIGER, BUYING RIGHT

June 5, 2002: For every tiger in the wild, two are kept as pets in America.

As Mike Tyson ruminates on his trouncing by Lennox Lewis earlier this week, he may turn to feline company for consolation. Mr Tyson is the proud owner of one of America's 12,000 pet tigers. That figure, from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, excludes the 510 tigers kept in zoos. Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund estimates that just 5,000-7,200 tigers remain in the wild. There are 4,000 pet tigers in Texas alone--more than are presently roaming free in India.

Buying a tiger is easy. There are plenty of websites where you can pick one up with a credit card. A baby Bengal costs around $1,000. Most are "surplus" cubs, bred by zoos, or their descendants. These pets are not covered by the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which only applies to animals taken from the wild.

So the regulatory burden falls on individual states. The laws for the possession of exotic pets vary from one state to another; they are full of loopholes and are usually poorly enforced. Nineteen states ban private ownership of tigers. The rest either require permits or leave regulation up to local authorities. Last year Texas passed a law enabling its 254 local counties to outlaw pet tigers. Similar laws may be enacted in Ohio, Washington and New York.

Enforcing such bans, though, is another matter. The owners of exotic beasts are unlikely to surrender their pets voluntarily. And even if the police had the wherewithal to capture illegally owned tigers, what would they do with them? Zoos say they already have more tigers than they can take, and repatriation to Asia is out of the question.

Where bans exist, wily owners will often claim they are "licensed exhibitors", which puts them under the Department of Agriculture's jurisdiction. In recent years the department has become somewhat more aggressive in inspecting such exhibitors, prompting howls of fury from tiger owners.

Nevertheless, a little more inspection would be no bad thing. Over the past ten years at least 16 Americans have been attacked by pet tigers, five of them fatally. But typically it is the animals themselves who suffer most. Some gormless owners are surprised to see their cute little cub transmogrify into a 400lb (180kg) eating machine that devours $200-worth of meat every week. Sometimes their claws are removed to make them safer. Few American vets are qualified to treat tigers. Worst of all, it seems that some animals are being bought just so they can be slaughtered for their skins, which fetch up to ten times more than a live animal. They'd surely be better off taking their chances in the wild.

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:17 am

SnoozeControl wrote: In this case, humanity makes me sick.

I second that emotion (no I am not Smokey Robinson

)

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:28 am

Accountable wrote: Worst of all, it seems that some animals are being bought just so they can be slaughtered for their skins, which fetch up to ten times more than a live animal.

Hm. Tiger farms. Would they relieve the pressure on these animals in their

actual environment, or would those still be taken? I'd guess a bit of both.