Making a Killing in the Year of the Tiger

An Updated Executive Summary for IFAW’s May 2007 Report,

Made in China—Farming Tigers to Extinction

Tigers are listed on Appendix I of

CITES, which bans the international
trade of tiger parts and derivatives for
commercial purposes. In 2002, at
CoP12, CITES Parties adopted
Resolution Conference 12.5,
Conservation of and trade in tigers and
other Appendix-I Asian big cat species,
which urged parties to improve
legislation to prohibit international and
domestic trade of tiger parts,
derivatives and products, enhance
enforcement and destroy stockpiles of
tiger parts.

Domestic trade bans are a key recommendation in CITES Resolution Conf. 12.5 because legal
domestic trade has been shown to undermine the international trade ban and stimulate poaching of
tigers in the wild 1 . All 13 tiger range states in Asia and many consumer states have implemented
domestic trade bans.

As a primary market for tiger bone (historically an ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine),
China banned the trade of tiger bone in 1993. China’s ban and the subsequent removal of tiger bone
from the list of approved TCM ingredients significantly reduced demand for tiger parts in China.

In 2007, leading up to CITES CoP14, commercial tiger farms in China intensified their lobbying of
the Chinese government to lift the country’s effective tiger trade ban. With 5,000 tigers kept on
these farms and an annual reproduction rate of 800, 2 investors and owners of these tiger farming
corporations were getting impatient about legalizing the trade of tiger parts from the farms. 3

Media reports and NGO investigations documented the production and sale of products such as
tiger meat and tiger bone wine. Even an officer from the CITES Secretariat was offered “tiger bone
wine” at the hotel where he stayed during a verification and assessment mission conducted in
China. 4

IFAW documented the illegal trade in the report Made in China—Farming Tigers to Extinction 5
and warned that, if tiger farms marketed products that claim to contain tiger bone, it would create

1
See CITES Article VIII, (Requiring parties to take appropriate measures to enforce provisions of the Convention and
to prohibit trade in violation thereof. The obligation is not limited to international trade, but covers domestic trade as
well. While the Convention specifically codifies two such measures in subparagraphs (a) and (b), those measures
should not be interpreted as limiting the ability of Parties to take additional appropriate measures to enforce the
provisions.)
2
CoP14 Doc. 52 Annex 1, Report from China. http://www.cites.org/common/cop/14/doc/E14-52A01.pdf
3
CoP14 Doc. 52 Annex 8, Current Situation at Xiongsen Tigers and Bears Mountain Village.
http://www.cites.org/common/cop/14/doc/E14-52A08.pdf
4
CoP14 Doc. 52 Annex 7, Report by the CITES Secretariat. http://www.cites.org/common/cop/14/doc/E14-52A07.pdf
5
IFAW, 2007, Made in China—Farming Tigers to Extinction.
http://ifaw.org/Publications/Program_Publications/Wildlife_Trade/Campaign_Scientific_Publications/asset_upload_file
969_15193.pdf
the impression that tiger consumption is legitimate and perpetuate what had previously been a
waning demand for dead tigers in China.

Concerned that illegal trade of tiger parts, wherever it occurred, would undermine the effectiveness
of CITES and threaten the survival of wild tigers, CITES Parties adopted, by consensus, a series of
decisions at CoP14, calling for improved law enforcement and stricter domestic policies.
Specifically, Decision 14.69 directs “Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a
commercial scale shall implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive
only to conserving wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for the trade of their parts and
derivatives.”

Cage after cage house tigers on the Guilin tiger farm. © Sinopix / IFAW

Sadly, there has been little progress in implementing the CITES decisions. Weak law enforcement
has proved to be no match for the rampant poaching of tigers in the wild, sophisticated smuggling
operations that transport tiger parts across international borders and the brisk selling of tiger
products on tiger farms and on the Internet. The illegal trade of tiger parts and products, violating
CITES and domestic trade bans, has pushed the tiger to another crisis point.

Surveys in India, long thought a tiger stronghold, indicate that there may be as few as 1,200
surviving wild tigers. In 2009 alone, the tiger mortality rate in India increased by 20 percent. An
annual survey conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society showed a possible 30-40 percent
decline in the Amur tiger population in the Russian Far East, primarily due to poaching and habitat
degradation. The overall population of wild tigers may have dropped to below 3,500.

The Year of the Tiger, an auspicious year in the Chinese lunar calendar, has begun. Cashing in on
the rage for tiger merchandise, commercial tiger farms and businesses are stepping up their
marketing of tiger products. To evade the government’s ban on tiger bone in TCM, these farms
openly sell alcohol-based drinks purported to contain tiger bone as health tonics.

The Chinese news magazine Southern Weekend reported that bottles of “Nurture Bone Wine,”
advertised as containing fragments of tiger bone, are sold for $115-$410 at the tiger farm in Harbin,
China, only ten meters away from a freezer containing hundreds of tiger carcasses. 6

6
Southern Weekend, February 9, 2010. A Deadly Gamble for Tigers.
http://www.infzm.com/content/41424
The New York Times revealed that “bone strengthening” wine in tiger-shaped bottles, produced at
the winery associated with Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village, are openly sold as tiger
bone wine across the surrounding region and beyond. 7

Various types of “Nurture Bone Wine” and tonics claiming to contain tiger bone are sold online and at tiger
farms in China. © IFAW

The Mail on Sunday 8 reported that 200,000 bottles of “tiger bone wine” are sold annually from a
wine cellar that stores 8,000 tons of liquor infused with 600 tiger bodies at the Xiongsen Tiger
Farm.

In addition to media reports, IFAW’s recent investigations in China have found an increase in the
illegal sale of products claiming to contain tiger parts, both online and in stores. A website named
“Tiger bone wine” (in Chinese, www.laohujiu.com) openly promotes the trade of tiger parts and
products, including tiger bone wine, pelts, whiskers, testicles, teeth, meat, urine and penises. The
site claims its association with the Xiongsen Tiger Farm and boasts of the wide coverage in China
of the company’s retail shops.

Fueled by China’s rapid economic growth and increasing consuming power, commercial trade of
tiger parts from these farms has renewed interest in and demand for high-end products from tigers
and other Asian big cats. This illegal trade is rekindling the significantly reduced TCM demand for
tiger parts in China, stimulating the illegal, global trade in wildlife and contributing to increased
poaching of wild tigers.

IFAW welcomes the recent directive from the Chinese government to crack down on the illegal
trade of tiger parts and products and to destroy the stockpiles held at tiger-breeding facilities. IFAW
urges the immediate implementation of the directive, including the development of public
awareness campaigns to reduce consumption of tiger parts, as well as the prevention of illegal trade
of tiger parts and products by the tiger breeding facilities.

7
New York Times, February 12, 2010. Tiger Farms in China Feed Thirst for Parts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/world/asia/13tiger.html?fta=y
8
Mail on Sunday, February 10, 2010. Exposed: Dark secret of the farm where tigers' bodies are plundered to make
£185 wine.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1252500/Exposed-Dark-secret-farm-tigers-bodies-plundered-make-185-
wine.html#
 IFAW is working to ensure that tigers have a bright future. © IFAW/W. Poole

IFAW recommends that:

• The Chinese government declare an immediate and permanent ban in all trade of all parts and
derivatives of tigers and other Asian big cats. In addition to destroying stockpiles of tiger parts,
as urged in CITES Resolution Conf. 12.5, China should support international efforts to
eliminate the trade of tiger parts and derivatives by phasing out tiger farms.
• CITES Parties support Doc. 43.2 with all proposed amendments to strengthen Resolution Conf.
12.5 on the conservation of and trade in tigers and other Appendix I Asian big cat species. In
particular, Parties should support the integration into the revised resolution of the language in
Decision 14.69: “Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a commercial scale shall
implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving
wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for the trade of their parts and derivatives.”
• CITES Parties adopt additional language that eliminates all trade from any source, as well as
any new uses of parts and derivatives from tigers and other Asian big cat species, to remove
other possible threats to wild tigers and other Asian big cats.