[wildtrade] Frozen tiger, bones seized in Vietnam: monitors

Thu Jul 23 03:20:18 BST 2009

Subject: [vnnews-l] AH: Frozen tiger, bones seized in Vietnam: monitors
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:22:52 -0700
From: Stephen Denney <srdenney at gmail.com>
To: vnnews-l at anu.edu.au

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g68PRhFJlmDHJJ-j9dVKQdrgy0gg

Frozen tiger, bones seized in Vietnam: monitors

(AFP) – 21 hours ago

HANOI — A frozen young tiger and several kilograms of tiger bones have been
seized by police in Vietnam, where only about 50 of the animals remain, an
environmental group said in a statement received Monday.

Hanoi's environmental police found the frozen tiger, weighing 57 kilograms
(125 pounds), in the boot of a "suspicious" taxi they stopped in the capital
early last Thursday, the TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network said.

They also found 11 kilograms of limb bones believed to come from two tigers,
it said.

Environmental police believe the tiger had been transported from central
Vietnam but it is not yet known whether it was a native big cat or whether
it was wild or captive, said TRAFFIC.

The tiger seizure is the third in Hanoi this year after six tiger skins were
found at a store in January and 23 kilograms of frozen tiger parts were
recovered the following month, TRAFFIC said.

"These seizures show us just how serious the threat to Asia's remaining wild
tigers is," said Nguyen Dao Ngoc Van, of TRAFFIC's Hanoi office.

Vietnam is a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which lists tigers as a protected and
endangered species.

Tigers are threatened by the loss of natural habitat from Asia's rapid
urbanisation, and are also hunted for fur and body parts used in traditional
Chinese medicine.