Chinese zoo closed for starving tigers to harvest body parts

In what is one of the more disturbing stories in a while, a Chinese zoo has apparently been shut down due to the deaths of several captive Siberian tigers. The zoo, which is in the Liaoning province, has been accused of letting the tigers starve to death in order to harvest the endangered animal’s valuable penis and bones, which are believed to help treat diseases and increase potency and virility. BlackBook reports:

According to an unnamed source in the Beijing News, between 40 and 50 tigers have died at the Shenyang Wildlife Zoo since 2000, and it was an “open secret” that the zoo was making tiger-bone liquor…A report surfaced last week that 11 of the zoo’s tigers had recently died of starvation, and three years ago, four tigers at the zoo killed and ate a fellow tiger that they had been sharing a cage with for five years.”

The Times Online has more on the very awful story, quoting a zoo worker who made “tiger wine” in very large vats in the past:

The unidentified official said: “I myself have taken tiger bone wine.” He said the zoo generally used the wine in gifts-for-favours transactions with senior officials including the Forestry departments, which are responsible for animal conservation, as well as the police.

I am not sure which is worse, the fact that China’s industry intentionally cut its milk with poison and killed people, or that one of their zoos starved an endangered species to make money off its body parts. Both make me fear for what the intrigue of capitalism has born in the fastest growing economy in the world. It is believed there are only about 20 Siberian tigers left living in the wild.

via China Zoo Selling Spare Tiger Parts.