Tigers breed like poultry in China!

According to the current report from the Environmental Investigation Agency, China's tiger farms are huge, with thousands of captive tigers being bred for slaughter as we breed our domestic animals. That's possible because China has essentially legalized the tiger trade, which is troubling considering China is a signatory of the CITES treaty, which bans international trade in tiger parts (amongst other animals, like rhinos and elephants) and which also calls for domestic trade prohibitions.But far more troubling is the EIA's conclusion that China's tiger farms are actually stimulating demand for wild tigers. Are we still safe?

The report states that there are somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 captive tigers in China, a population that boomed from just a couple dozen in the 80s thanks to favorable legal policies as well as overt funding from China's State Forestry Administration. (Times 2010- China's largest tiger farm is run by the SFA.) Meanwhile, China's wild tiger population has plummeted to just a few dozen individuals, down from a high of around 4,000 in the late 1940s. But finally they've got guts, just a flashback to PREY the movie directed by Darrell Roodt in 2007 gives me jitters, just hope we are safe.