China: Tiger body discovered in car

Police in east China have seized the body of an animal suspected to be a Siberian tiger as it was being loaded onto an SUV by two suspects.

Two men were caught by police in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province loading a woven bag into a vehicle – one man fled immediately and the other was held by police.

An initial inspection by forestry experts in Wenzhou said the tiger is believed to be a Siberian tiger, but further examination is needed to confirm its exact species.

The case is under further investigation.

Siberian tigers, one of the world’s rarest mammals, mainly live in the Russian Far East, northeast China and northern parts of the Korean Peninsula. There are fewer than 500 Siberian tigers left in the wild.

Last May, the State Forestry Administration put the number of wild Siberian tigers in China at between 18 and 22.

According to China’s criminal law, those who illegally catch, kill, buy or sell endangered wild animals on the state’s key protection list face a maximum penalty of more than ten years in jail and fines. And on Monday, the Chinese government destroyed 6.1 tonnes of confiscated ivory in southern Guangdong Province in a first-of-its-kind move to demonstrate its stance against illegal wildlife trafficking.

“We are hopeful that China will move towards a more stringent policing of wildlife trafficking laws,” says the TigerTime team. “As one of the main consumer countries of tiger parts it’s vital that China begins to enforce the law and raise awareness of the threat facing tigers in the wild.”

Source: CRI English