Chinese Tiger Swap

"Shenyang zoo has been closed after the deaths of 11 Siberian tigers and allegations of supplying the illegal tiger-bone trade"

Ooh no China, why oh why do you do things like this?! Especially to tigers. Not tigers, please. They are my most favourite of all the animals, the coolest of the cats, the smartest of the striped... Well, I would guess anyways - just think of the competition, zebras, and err..zebras..(hang on..) ok, after a little googling, there are also skunks and hyenas of course (who obviously have nothing on the tiger), bugs and fish (who obviously have nothing on anything) and even apparently you can get striped squirrel type things – whoever knew? Kinda funky actually, but still - not a tiger. Anyways, I am diverting…Basically, this is very distressing, especially when you finally manage to get past the gloomy starved tiger image and actually read the article which explains that actually this "zoo" keeps tigers often to sell their bones to local "doctors" to brew up some nice traditional medicines(hmm, note to self, if ever in China, remember nurofen tablets…)So yes, tiger tonic anyone? Oooh,or even some of the tiger bone wine the zoos website boasts about (I would guess a great accompaniment to any game dish?). Of course, it didn't stop there. Why waste good skin, carcass, teeth, eyes, penises etc etc? They all have their unfortunate uses. So instead of buying food for the animals (pfft, who would be so stupid?), money was spent on freezers (but of course!), needed to keep the remnants of a once beautiful animal at a safe consumer temperature until their required use. Brilliant. Genius. Nice. But hang on, has anyone never thought of trying Chinese bones in traditional medicine? Chinese bone wine? Chinese teeth, eyes and so forth? I know it’s not very ethical, but just think, there are a damn load more Chinese than tigers, therefore the long scale business prospects would be far greater right? Mainly though of course, it would surely make them think twice about such disgusting, cruel practices…so…would d’ya reckon?

(Ok, so I am not actually suggesting the farming of Chinese people. Trust me, I know and like many Chinese people. Maybe just give the ones involved with this type of thing a little scare…).

(Here's the link to the original article:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/chinese-zoo-tiger)