"The Tiger Mafia”: for 10 years, he investigated the underside of tiger trafficking

Brut America

Alive, they are sold to zoos or small menageries. When dead, their skin, claws or bones are transformed into traditional remedies or luxury products…   For 10 years, he investigated the tiger trade in Asia. FOUR PAWS International shines a light on Karl Ammann’s new documentary.

Transcript

00:00The Icon

00:02Tiger Skeleton

00:04You can buy Tiger related products

00:06He recommended beads

00:08Some circular beads

00:10And then I

00:12Tiger bones

00:14The price was 4 RMB

00:16per gram

00:18And all this is on WeChat now?

00:20All this is on WeChat

00:26Yeah, don't talk

00:30The Icon

00:32Tiger Skeleton

00:38There's a lot of people who have gotten into this business

00:40Because a lot of money can be made

00:42So even people which used to be

00:44in the drug or arms business

00:46now have branched out

00:48and added the wildlife trafficking

00:50business onto it because

00:52there is now big money in it

01:00The Icon

01:08I don't think he has any claws

01:12No, he has no claws

01:14Where are your claws?

01:16Have they pulled them?

01:30The Icon

01:42We talked about

01:44the price of $50,000

01:46for an adult tiger

01:48A tiger is an adult in about 3 years

01:50So it

01:52can be a very fast return

01:54on investment

01:56The demand seems to be there

01:58The demand seems to be growing

02:00So various players have gone into this business

02:02because of this profitability

02:28This way?

02:30Your leg?

02:46The zoos obviously

02:48exhibit tigers for the public

02:50which they've already done

02:52but now they breed them more intensively

02:54They're expanding the tiger exhibits

02:56They're creating essentially

02:58their own tiger farm section

03:00The tigers disappear out the back door

03:02and they

03:04improve their

03:06profits by

03:08joining this side of the trade

03:10rather than just being a zoo for visitors

03:20These are two different

03:22types of wires

03:24These are made from bones

03:26and these are made with

03:28the Chinese medicine ingredient

03:30This is better for health

03:32Yeah, but bone is very good

03:34But we can

03:36There's no place here where we can see

03:38where it's made

03:40She said it's made inside the park

03:42Inside the park

03:54This bone is different from this bone

03:56but it's both tiger

03:58Also tiger

04:00Here

04:02Like this one

04:04Inside the bigger one

04:06But why is it red and why is this yellow?

04:08I still don't understand

04:10This one is red

04:12This one is yellow

04:14This one is red

04:16This one is yellow

04:18This one is red

04:20This one is yellow

04:22You sure?

04:24This red color is normal red

04:26Normal red like this

04:28I showed a photo

04:30So the bones are still taken when the tiger is asleep

04:34They put some medicine

04:36They kill the tiger

04:38No, no, no, medicine

04:40and they sleep

04:42and some people they cut this

04:44and some people

04:46They take all the bones

04:48It's that constant strive for higher status

04:50for new products

04:52and the dealers know it

04:54They know their clients

04:56They know how they respond to this

04:58So they play into all this

05:00So that's how it happens

05:02and that's what really

05:04was surprising to me

05:06and was really in some way shocking

05:08that it had gone that far

05:20With that price

05:22any wild tiger

05:24has little hope

05:26That means

05:28if any hunter or any villagers

05:30hears about a wild tiger

05:32in one area

05:34they are aware of these price levels

05:36of the tigers which come out

05:38of the farms

05:40So they know if they can poach

05:42a wild tiger

05:44that potentially they might not get

05:4650 times the price

05:48Potentially they might not get

05:5050,000 dollars but they can

05:52earn a part of that by getting

05:54that tiger to market somehow

05:56So in some ways

05:58it actually encourages the further

06:00poaching of the last wild tigers

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