China and Captive Tiger Trade

What will come first, educating Chinese not to use endangered tiger- parts in medicines and aphrodisiacs or the extinction of the tiger in the wild ? I fear and expect the latter. In 1993 China band trade of any kind in tiger- parts. Since that time tiger populations in the wild have plummeted because of illegal poaching. Now China is considering captive-breeding of tigers for human exploitation. The World Wildlife Fund's Global Species Program is opposing this move.

As long as there are buyers there will be sellers at some price. This applies to the oldest profession, drug use, etc. The most timely and effective remedy is humane captive breeding to supply these markets. China's 1.2 billion population alongside the facts of only 1000 Pandas in the wild, an environmentally degraded country that is headed into a full blown industrial revolution is not cause for hope for the mute among us.