Monday, March 06, 2006
If you can't free Tibet, save the tigers
Caption:
An indian Royal Bengal Tiger looks from an enclosure at South Khairbari nature park, 103 miles from the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri February 8, 2006. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has thrown a lifeline to India's dwindling tiger population after an emotional appeal to outlaw the trade in animal skins provoked an extraordinary reaction in his homeland.
Tibetens have been getting richer, and that has been a bad thing for India's tigers:
Conservationists say there has been a sharp rise in the poaching of tigers and leopards in India in recent years to feed an explosion of demand from Tibet. They say the tiger faced being wiped out in India as a result.
Now they have some renewed hope....
An ancient tradition of wearing animal furs seemed to have been revived in Tibet in recent years, partly perhaps as a result of greater disposable income. Since December, 1999, 18 of 19 major seizures of wildlife parts or skins in India either involved Tibetans or were strongly linked to Tibet, said Wright.
If Tibetans have to have fur coats, I would much prefer that they bred Dalmation puppies to harvesting wild tigers. But that's just me.
1 Comments:
By 
Gordon Smith, at
Mon Mar 06, 10:59:00 PM:
I'm not sure I've ever gone this far off topic before. But here goes.
Hawk! Come check out our interview with Republican candidate for Congress in NC's 11th, John Armor.
