Today, on Global Tiger Day, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) is urging Asian governments to investigate and close down any tiger breeding operations involved in the illegal trading of tigers and tiger parts.
The WWF drew a clear line between tiger farms that breed animals for illegal trading and zoos or captive breeding facilities founded for conservation purposes.
It is believed that many tiger breeding centers become involved in illegal trading due to the sheer cost of running the centers and a lack of funds.
In light of the Tiger Temple Raid, where over 40 tiger cubs were found frozen in a freezer and over 130 tigers were relocated to a government breeding center after allegations of animal trafficking and disappeared animals, the WWF has deemed it crucial to close down any illegal tiger trading business.
According to the leader of the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, Michael Baltzer, “closing tiger farms will help countries to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022.”
The number of tigers in the wild are believed to only be around 3900. The population of captive tigers living on farms is larger than those living in the wild by as many as 8000, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
It is believed that these captive tigers are mostly spread out across 200 centers around Asia including outposts in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China. Tiger breeding centers have increased at an astounding rate over the last decade and a half, despite the continuing effort of an NGO coalition to put a stop to tiger breeding for commercial purposes and illegal tiger farms and trading operations.
According to Baltzer, the government effort to put a stop to this has made progress but there is still a long way to go to completely secure the tigers’ well-being, they are at risk due to habitat loss and poaching.
“The hard work could so easily be undone” said Baltzer, speaking of efforts to protect these wild animals being undermined by illegal tiger breeding and trafficking centers.
While authorities and the WWF have called for the closure of these centers, it has been reported that this can’t be done overnight as these tigers have become adjusted to living in captivity and would not be able to survive in the wild.
Director of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, Edwin Wiek, has urged international support to ease the tigers transition out of captivity. He also believe that it is critical for them to provide financial support to the Thai government to “speedily close all the existing operations involved in tiger trading.”
The issue of tiger farms will also be discussed in the upcoming conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to be held in South Africa. One of the issue in the discussion is reportedly the need to prevent illegal trading of tigers and tiger products.
According to them, the WWF supports a number of proposals that, if adopted, would mean there would be more oversight and regulation on all tiger breeding operations.
