The illegal trade in exotic animals is second
only to the drug trade in the U.S. A live adult tiger can be
purchased for a few hundred dollars, it is worth $5,000 dead.
The internet sites that advertise tiger parts are called Dead
Zoos. The tigers head, paws, skin, bones, eyes and other
parts as well as its meat are sold into the black market.
Because lions are not considered endangered, tiger meat is
sold as lion for exotic game restaurants in this country.
Independent dealers collect up to 10 animals at
a time, deliver them to a slaughter house/ taxidermist where
they are shot in the cages they arrive in and subsequently
dismembered. It takes multiple shots to complete the kill
because they will shoot the tiger in the chest to avoid bullet
holes in the head.
It is difficult for us to make the case in the
international community to stop this cruelty when the US is
second only to China in this trade.
US Fish and Wildlife Service investigation:
Operation Snow Plow