Exposed... cruel trade
TIGER cubs are being offered for sale to private UK collectors and zoos by callous dealers who breed the animals in substandard conditions.
The vile trade in six-week-old cubs was exposed by undercover investigators who discovered a booming trade in wild animals across Europe.
Animals bred for commercial purposes are being trafficked across Europe and have been offered for private sale in the UK, and to wildlife parks and zoos.
They are advertised on exotic pet websites for £5,000 each as “surplus” with dealers offering advice on how to evade customs and border checks in a trade that is worth more than £40million a year.
Weak legislation on the breeding and sale of captive wild animals has sparked a lucrative black market for tigers as pets, circus performers and for photo opportunities at private parties.
They are also in demand for their skin and bones for traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medical remedies.
“This is an appalling trade and the animals are kept in pitiful conditions, sometimes in darkened cellars, before they are sold to the highest bidder,” says Ioana Dungler, a director of global animal welfare organisation Four Paws.
“Their misery doesn’t end there as they are kept in cramped spaces by private collectors who care little about their welfare and more about their own status. Tigers have become an extremely profitable commodity and we have seen rising numbers of captive tigers being reared in Europe and subsequently traded in and out of the region.
“It is gravely concerning how easy it is to buy a tiger or move a tiger around Europe unchecked.
“This brazen cruelty has to be stopped.” Four Paws obtained footage with a hidden camera of a dealer in Lithuania showing investigators a litter of six-weekold tiger cubs on sale for £5,000 each.
The dealer claimed to have sold two tigers into the UK and said that business was brisk.
“We are going to the Czech Republic two or three times per month, maybe. We exchange animals, we’re buying, sometimes we sell them,” he said.
He also revealed that he could manipulate registration documents to transport tigers easily throughout Europe and boasted of a network of contacts that could supply zebras and giraffes illegally from Africa to southern Spain for sale across Europe.
“Frustratingly, the findings from Lithuania are not unique. The commercial trade in tigers is a multimillion-pound business in Europe,” says Mrs Dungler.
“If the commercial trade is prohibited the breeding of tigers is no longer lucrative. We need to hit these breeders where they’re most concerned, their pockets.”
Four Paws is calling for a ban on all commercial trade in live tigers and for their transport to be restricted to official breeding programmes run by legitimate zoos and rescue work by recognised sanctuaries.
A petition calling for the European Commission to ban the trade in captive-bred tigers has reached 200,000 signatures.