This is a great article from our friends at Plan Your Safari’s regarding worrying trends in the illegal animal parts trade. It focuses on the shady business of substituting Lion bones instead of Tiger bones to make traditional medicines. Here is an exerpt from that article.
‘We are beginning to see some worrying trends in the illegal trade of animal parts – and this time it is not just about rhino horns, elephant tusks, bear gall bladders, and shark’s fins – it is about lion bones. Yes, you read that right, lion bones. Ian Michler, writing for Africa Geographic Magazine in February 2009 as reported by Big Cat Rescue, exposed a growing trend in this shady business, and I suspect we have only just exposed the tip of this rotten iceberg.
But back to lion bones. Big Cat Rescue reports the use of “tiger wine” (rice wine carefully aged with added tiger bones or even whole carcasses) to make a person less fatigued and take care of arthritis and rheumatism. Since the tiger harvest is falling off a bit, the manufacturers of tiger wine are now looking for an alternative to make their vintages – lions. Consequently, and probably not only because of the wine market, the price of lion bones is increasing by leaps and bounds. If you happened to have some lion bones lying around the house two years ago, you could have sold a kilo for about $10. If you sell them now, you get $300. Big Cat Rescue estimates that the bony bits of a whole lion can now be sold for $4,000.’
To read the full article and learn more about this terrible issue….Click Here
