HOST: Caring viewers this is Stop Animal Cruelty on Supreme Master Television.

On today's program, we focus on the resplendent tiger, recognized as one of the most magnificent and beautiful animals on Earth. Throughout history, the tiger has been admired as a powerful symbol of strength, nobility, and wisdom, and revered by many cultures.

In a poll conducted by the cable and satellite television channel Animal Planet with 50,000 viewers in 73 countries participating, the tiger was voted to be the world's favorite animal.

But the irony is humankind allows this beloved, majestic, and dignified being to be subjected to unconscionable forms of cruelty and vicious slaughtering.

At the turn of the 20th century, a population of over 100,000 tigers graced our Earth.
Now according to the non-profit conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) there are only about 3,200 wild tigers left in the world and the species ranks number one on its list of the 10 most critically endangered species on Earth.

Yet, in spite of all of this, the violent killing of this incredible animal still continues.  Ms. Andrea Ng is the President of EarthCare, a Hong Kong-based non-profit animal protection and sustainable living organization.

Ms. Ng has been a vegan for 23 years, and approximately 99% of her group’s volunteers are vegetarians. She has been working tirelessly to save the tiger, and now explains why this animal continues to be mercilessly murdered.

Andrea: The reason why the tigers are becoming extinct very quickly is due to poaching by humans. As we all know, tigers are famous for firstly their beautiful skin, and secondly it’s also because of the bones and the body parts of the tiger used for Chinese medicine and for medicine  for rheumatics, and for making
tiger bone wines, etc.

So that’s why hundreds of poachers kill the tigers and sell these medicines to many parts of the world, especially Chinese communities, and reap a big profit during the process.

HOST: Unfortunately some still believe that consuming certain body parts of a powerful animal means that animal’s power will be transferred to their body.

Ms. Ng says this archaic and ignorant notion has unfortunately created a market for tiger body parts even in the 21st century.

Andrea: Many tigers being poached are from southern Asia and China.
This is because of the false cultural assumptions and beliefs that consuming tiger bones and tiger parts will contribute to your health, and contribute to your physical prowess and stamina and strength, etc.

However, there’s no scientific proof for these assumptions. So make sure that you remind your friends about this. In fact there are more than a hundred Chinese herbal alternatives that could replace these animal body parts, and they are also very cheap.

There are many poor communities, for example, in India and the people there could reap a lot of profit by killing animals and selling them to more developed areas like South China and Hong Kong, so that’s why there is a big black market involved in the poaching business.

For more details on tiger conservation,
please visit:Heal Our Planet Earth
www.All-Creatures.org/hope
EarthCare
www.Earth.org.hk