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A CHINESE BUSINESSMAN who bought and ate three tigers has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, state media reports.
The wealthy real estate developer, identified only by his surname Xu, has “a special hobby of grilling tiger bones, boning tiger paws, storing tiger penis, eating tiger meat and drinking tiger blood alcohol,” the official Xinhua news agency said in June when he went on trial.
Xu organised three separate trips last year for a total of 15 people, including himself, to Leizhou in the southern province of Guangdong, where they bought tigers for a “huge amount of money” that were killed and dismembered as they watched, the government-run news portal gxnews.com.cn reported.
Footage of the killing
One of them filmed the entire process of a tiger slaughter with his mobile phone. The footage was later obtained by police.
Police seized eight pieces of animal meat and bones from a refrigerator in Xu’s home, some of which were later identified as tiger parts, including a penis, the report said, adding that 16 geckos and a cobra were also found.
A court in Guangxi earlier this year convicted the 15 of “illegally transporting precious and endangered wild animal products” but the conviction was not reported at the time.
Xu was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a fine of 1.55 million yuan ($250,000), gxnews.com.cn said, with the others jailed for terms between five and six and a half years, and given smaller fines.
They appealed and a higher court upheld the ruling on Monday, the report said.
Tiger bones have long been an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine, supposedly for a capacity to strengthen the human body, and while they have been removed from its official ingredient list the belief persists among some.
It is a long-held belief across parts of Asia that penises of animals such as tigers and seals can boost men’s sexual performance.
There is no orthodox scientific evidence for such claims.
Decades of trafficking and habitat destruction have slashed the tiger population from 100,000 a century ago to approximately 3,000, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species, where the tiger is classed as endangered.
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It’s critically endangered status as opposed to endangered Journal !..
Chinese beliefs in herbal medicine have always fueled this needless slaughter of some of this planet’s most beautiful animals.
I think it’s best I drink my remaining tiger beer from the fridge….. fast!
If he’s that fascinated by a tiger’s insides they should just feed him to the tigers 13 years for killing not one but three of an endangered species
There needs to be a serious discussion around Asians stopping breeding. There’s too much money on the continent now and not enough brain usage/common sense.
They’re grrrrrrreat!
Should have jailed those as well that were involved in selling the Richard Cranium the tigers in the first place!
@Debi. Did I miss something, what/who is Richard Cranium?
Hi Ten, Richard Cranium is another way of saying Dick-Head.
Well if its true what they say about eating tiger parts he’ll be going around jail with a raging horn for the 13 years!
He’ll be hoping tiger parts also strengthen the ringpiece
Hope the other inmates enjoy the supposed effects of the tiger penis on his performance.
Absolute total savagery!! I hope he rots in prison!!
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