Truck filled with 800 bear paws seized

[dArKeR]

MOSCOW - Russian customs seized a truck heading for China after agents uncovered a load of animal parts, including nearly 800 severed bear paws prized for exotic dishes, Russian media reported on Saturday.

NTV television showed footage of agents unloading bags on Friday full of the paws, which fetch high prices in Chinese restaurants.

It said the illicit cargo, concealed beneath piles of used car batteries and boxes of food, also included assorted antlers, pelts of fur-bearing animals and dried sea cucumbers.

NTV said the Chinese driver of the truck had been detained pending further investigation.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4568887/

[Doctor Smith]

1. I was thinking pastries.

[NMDemDist2]

2. no, those would be bear CLAWS

:hi: hehhehhe

[rogerashton]

3. That gives me paws.

n/t

[Doctor Smith]

5. Oops, right you are.

[Southsideirish]

4. How could anyone make a joke about this? Its a horror. n/t

[HereSince1628]

6. Really, its unbearable...

800 paws represent 200 bears no longer with us.

Say ten square miles per bear for a range and that is enough bears to fill 2000 square miles...not a huge area by Siberian standards but a big area nonetheless.

Optimistically, naybe they were dancing bears...circus drop outs and has beens.

[blindpig]

7. meanwhile back in the Smokies.....

About 25% of the bear population is wiped due to this trade. An apologist on these boards had the gall to tell me that most of this trade is for the tourist in China!

[Matilda]

8. WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) does a lot

of good work trying to stamp out this sort of thing.

You can contact them via their website - I have only the Australian
site, but a Google search should help find them quickly.

They send me mail every couple of months and I donate what I can,
or you can sign up to donate regularly.