Under the heading “China Tries to Rewrite the Prescription for
Tigers,” the July-August 2006 edition of Animal People
contains a news article from Hong Kong about tigers.
To quote from the opening paragraph: “Trying to reshape world opinion
about tiger conservation, in hopes of reopening legal commerce in tiger
parts, the State Forestry Administration of China during the second week
of June 2006 hosted visits to two major tiger farms by four outside
“experts.” The article also states that “There are around 20
tiger-breeding facilities in China.”
As one would expect, the four “visitors” were carefully chosen and
their every move planned and controlled by the Chinese for this
publicity stunt. Nothing was left to chance. Yet even one of the
“visitors” noted “the lack of time we were granted to ask questions and
listen to answers.”
John Wedderburn of Hong Kong, founder of the Asia Animal Protection
Network, who has visited and revisited Chinese zoos, as well as zoos of
other countries, uninvited, since 1994, had this to say: “I would prefer
extinction of my species to a future of captivity, certainly of
captivity in the conditions currently offered in Chinese zoos.” I agree
with his statement.
As I wrote in a previous Blog, it is time for humans to stop meddling
in animals’ lives. There are worse fates than extinction: so-called
“conservation,” “restoration,” and “preservation” (aren’t euphemisms
great?!), and zoos, game farms, circuses…. Practically every day you
hear about the cloning and breeding of other animals to satisfy the
greedy and the egotistical. The public is not told about the “mistakes”
and the ones who don’t make the grade and are dumped like so much trash.
Look at the mess that humans have made of the earth! They are killing
each other, as well as destroying billions of other animals, in wars
around the globe; yet they have the colossal nerve to attempt to profit
even further from the manipulation and abuse of other species. Humans
are insatiable in their blood-lust.
When will it end?! When will humans wake up and grant other animals
legal rights, so that they can finally live the way God originally
intended?
