Group: China Must Keep Ban on Tiger Parts - AP

[Eugene]

Group: China Must Keep Ban on Tiger Parts

The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; 3:13 AM

BEIJING -- China must resist pressure to lift a ban on selling tiger parts as
doing so would push the endangered species closer to extinction, an animal
rights group said Tuesday.

Tiger skins are valuable and considered status symbols in areas such as
Tibet, while bones and other parts of the animal are used in traditional
medicines and as aphrodisiacs.

China banned trade in tiger parts in 1993, but animal rights activists said
they feared pressure was growing on the government to lift the ban,
especially for tigers bred in captivity.

"To overturn the ban and allow any trade in captive-bred tiger products
would waste all the efforts invested in saving wild tigers. It would be a
catastrophe for tiger conservation," said Steven Broad, executive director
of TRAFFIC, a monitoring program set up by WWF and the World
Conservation Union.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031300120.html