The Tiger Mafia

In Southeast Asia and Tiger Tiger products are booming. The increasing purchasing power in the Far East is driving the demand for teeth, claws, skins, meat and penises to dizzying heights. Almost everything is used for jewelry, tiger cake, tiger wine and other culinary delights. Status and medicine for wealthy individuals mainly from China. They are being after the last remaining 3,000 tigers in the wild, and the prospects for its survival are slim. The investors of a rapidly expanding tiger industry might be ok with it. They have resorted to the breeding of tigers on a large scale. Illegal though according to the statutes of CITES, but nobody seems to be bothered about it. Unmolestedly a mafia style network of tiger breeders expands from Thailand via Laos to China. Under the fig-leaf of safari parks and tiger shows it is all about million dollar profits. The tiger, icon of international conservation organizations, is about to degenerate into an industrial product.