Chinese to dine on zoo animals
Archive - February 2003

News reports from China have alleged that 100 Bengal tigers and 2,000 Siam alligators have been sent from Thailand to China to a zoo where visitors will be able to eat the animals.

The zoo 'Sanya Love World' is due to open this year and people will be able to have their photos taken alongside big cats and watch elephant shows and pig races. An official for the company running the theme park said people would be able to eat alligator meat. Although the tigers are allegedly being sent to China for a 'conservation' programme where they would be introduced to a nature reserve, one official is reported as saying that once they have bred more tigers "tourists are likely to eat tiger meat". The 'nature reserve' has not yet been created.

The company general manager denied these comments and said that selling tiger meat is illegal under current international conservation legislation, although he went on to say that if policies changed "we would have the right conditions to benefit ... as we will be the biggest tiger house in the world."

Another 18,000 alligators and 20 elephants are due to be sent to the zoo this year. Tiger body parts are used as food and traditional medicine in China, despite such trade being banned under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), with all five remaining species of tiger receiving the highest level of protection

WHAT YOU CAN DO

	Please write to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK asking him to help prevent the opening of this zoo and to ensure that no more animals are imported for it and that none of the animals are killed for their meat or body parts. His Excellency Ma Zhengang, Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the UK, 49-51 Portland Place, London, W1N 4JL (Letters should be addressed to Dear Excellency)
	Don't visit zoos - your money keeps them in business.
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