Tiger Parts and Chinese Medicine

Almost every part of the tiger is utilized in Chinese medicine. The whiskers are consumed for toothaches and strength; the eyes are taken to reduce convulsions and as treatment for epilepsy, malaria, nervousness and cataracts. Tiger noses are also eaten for epilepsy and convulsions. Tail is taken for various skin diseases.

 Modern products include the Nourish the Ovary Defer Decrepitude pills and Only Smart-Brain Liquid. Crushed and powdered tiger bone is mixed in wine and soup. Tiger bone potions are believed to cure rheumatism and arthritis, strengthen muscles and prolong life. Tiger wine is supposed to bring strength, prowess and virility to any man who drinks it.

 An adult tiger generally yields about 24 pounds of bones. Tiger bone like all mammal bones are comprised mainly of phosphorous, calcium and iron. There is no scientific proof that tiger bone offers any health benefits. Some samples contain sensation-causing arsenic and mercury to make users think it works. Many medicines that purport to contain tiger bones or parts actually don't.

 Asians also consume the teeth (for rabies, asthma and penis sores), brain (for pimples and laziness), blood (for strength and willpower), skin (for mental illness), flesh (for nausea, malaria and energy), testes (for tuberculosis), stomach (for upset stomachs), bile (convulsions in children), and gallstones (for weak or watery eyes). Even tiger feces are taken as a treatment for boils, hemorrhoids, epilepsy, malaria, and ulcers. No scientific evidence says they work.

 A bowl of tiger soup, selling for as much as $320 a bowl in Taiwan, is thought to enhance sexual prowess. Balms and pills with tiger parts are taken as remedies for rat bites, typhoid fever, dysentery, strong teeth, strong will, and to keep centipedes away. Some people eat tiger meat. They say it taste like pork except it is leaner and lighter.

 In Taiwan in the 1990s, tiger penises and eyes sold for $1,700. Powdered tiger bones went for $500 a gram. Forelimbs brought in as much as $500 per pound.

Tiger Part Pharmacies and Sellers

 Tiger parts are sold at Chinese medicine shops in China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Chinatowns in North America and Europe. According to Eugene Linden of Time magazine: "tiger bone remedies" are "so ingrained in these cultures that it is not certain their government could control the trade."

 Describing a Tibetan medicine man at a market in Guizhou Province of southern China, Patrick Tyler wrote in the New York Times, he "displayed his wares on a red cloth laid on the ground before him. On porcelain saucers lay his herbal delights: red angel hair from a Tibetan flower, yellow sawdust from a medicinal tree. And in the center of it all, the grizzled, amputated right foreleg of a tiger and other equally grizzled parts...Some of the skin had been pulled back from the tiger leg to expose the bone, which the medicine man cuts into wafer-thin slices with a hacksaw.”

 After mixing some tiger slices and herbs for another customer the Tibetan medicine man said, "if you put this in liquor and drink it three times a day, you will have magic power in bed." When the customer demanded a thicker slice, the medicine man asked, "A thicker slice? How many wives do you have that you need a thicker slice." When Tyler confronted the medicine men about the illegal nature of his trade in tiger parts, the medicine man said, "This is a Bangladesh tiger. I didn't shoot it myself. I'm a medicine man”

 Tiger farms were banned in China in 1993. In December 2007, a small zoo—the Three Gorges Forest Wild Animal World—in Yichang in Hubei Province was forced to close down after two stillborn Bengal tiger cubs were found in the zoo’s refrigerator a week after a beheaded adult Siberian tiger with its skin and legs missing was reported at the same zoo. A total of seven tigers died at the zoo over a four year period. Three died from starvation in December 2003. Four others died of sickness or fight wounds. The bones and hides of these tigers had been kept and preserved. The deaths however seems to have been more the result of neglect (the zoo had 100 species of animal but only five employees) than deliberate attempt to make money from selling animal parts.

Tiger Parts Market

  Through the 1980s there was not a large demand for tiger parts and the stockpile of tiger parts was enough to meet the demand for traditional Chinese medicine. In the previous years the market was supplied by thousands of Chinese tigers killed as pests and threats to human life. For a while there was an even a glut of tiger bone products.

 A set of tiger bones can be sold for around $7,000. When the stockpiles became exhausted in the 1980s the amount poaching began to dramatically increase and took off in the late 1980s and early 1990s when tigers were poached at a rate of one a day, primarily to supply to supply the Asian tiger medicine and product market.

 One of the biggest factors bringing about the sharp decline in the number of tigers has been the rising income in Asians. Many more people in countries like China, Korea, and Taiwan, who couldn’t before, now can afford expensive tiger medicines, which has created more demand and caused prices to rise on the supply end.

 These days many Chinese and Koreans have been educated about the costs of the tiger-based medicine but at the same time many more who are not educated about such matters or don't care are getting money to buy tiger-based medicines.

China and the Tiger Bone Trade

 Indian officials have blamed Chinese medicine for “fueling tiger poaching” in their country. One reason so many tigers were poached in the late 1980s and early 1990s was that many Chinese could afford tiger-based Chinese medicines as the Chinese economy began to take off.

 Between 1990 and 1994, China reportedly exported more than 70 tons of tiger bones from 5,600 tigers (more than the number of tigers that remain in the wild). During the winter of 1993 it was estimated that about one quarter of the population of 400 rare Amur Siberian tigers were killed, and nearly as many were killed in the winter of 1994.

 Some people in China have suggested raising tigers in captivity—tiger farming if you will—to supply the traditional medicine market, but conservationist argue that this wouldn't work because there is no way to tell the difference between bones from captive and wild animals.

 An estimated 4,000 tigers are being raised in “tiger” farms in China to supply the Chinese medicine trade in violation of international CITES agreement which prohibits such practices.

 In December, 2002, one hundred rare Bengal tigers were donated by Thailand to China. There were reports in newspapers that the tigers were going to be raised like cattle for meat. One newspaper reported that a place called “Love World” on Hainan Island planned to offer tiger meats dishes while people watched tigers roaming around. Government officials said there was no truth to the reports.

This picture shows how the tiger is used.