MALAYSIA: Traditional Healers Fight Use Of Animal Parts For medicinal Purposes

Numerous endangered animals in Malaysia continue to be poached and killed for the silliest of reason: millions of people around the region continue to persist in the belief that the parts of rare and "exotic" animals have curative properties.

And so rhinos are killed mercilessly for their horns to cure cancer and other diseases.

Tigers are poached for their bones so their bones can be ground up and used as curatives for kidney and liver problems or arthritis.

Pangolins have been driven to the edge of extinction because their scales are used in traditional medicine to treat malarial fever, deafness or demonic possession.

Sun bears are condemned to a life of misery so that their bile could be harvested to treat a variety of ailments.

Needless to say, none of these body parts possess the magical curative properties attributed to them.

But here now comes some good news: 46 members of the Federation of Chinese Physicians and Medicine Dealers Associations of Malaysia (FCPMDAM) have joined forces with the anti-wildlife trafficking watchdog TRAFFIC to fight wildlife crimes in the country.

The federation's healers have agreed, by signing a pledge, to promote herbal and other alternatives to bear bile in traditional medicine.

It is the responsibility of each of us to cherish and protect wild resources, the federation's President Ting Ka Hua said.

Chinese medicine practitioners and retailers should choose the legitimately produced medicines, pay attention to the contents of the products, do not buy medicinal ingredients of unknown provenance, and consciously resist illegal items.

Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are duty-bound, he said, to correct unfounded and inaccurate concepts of the use of wildlife in traditional medicine.

He added: Under the leadership of the Federation, we will drive support for the effort to end the use of illegal and endangered wildlife products in traditional medicine, within the Malaysian Chinese Traditional Medicine community, while maintaining the highest, safest and most reliable services.

Kudos to members of the federation for taking a stance against the use of wild animals like bears in traditional medicine.

The TCM community of practitioners and users in Malaysia can be one of the strongest allies to ending illegal wildlife trade, and we are very glad to be partnering with Malaysia’s largest TCM community, noted Kanitha Krishnasamy, acting regional director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia.

The good news is that effective substitutes for bear-based products are available and being used worldwide and it’s important for the Malaysian community to know of these alternatives and work towards incorporating them into practice.


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ZAMBIA: ZAWA Boost Efforts To Protect The Pangolin

In the past week, Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has rescued six pangolins through four separate operations across western Zambia. These scaly anteaters had been illegally captured from the wild by poachers and were being sold as part of the illegal wildlife trade.

GRI Wildlife Veterinary Project has assisted ZAWA in releasing four of the pangolins back into wild in Kafue National Park. Sadly two died as a result of their capture, one of which was a premature newborn whose mother gave birth due to stress.

Pangolins are often trafficked because their scales are prized in traditional Chinese medicine. In Zambia it has been reported that some cultures put a pangolin scale in their business cash box to protect their money. Other cultures believe that if the pangolin is fed special foods for a few days and then killed and opened a diamond will be found inside.

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) has reported that these scaly anteaters are now the most hunted animal on the planet. Making matters worse, the female pangolin only gestates once per year, so opportunities for reproduction are limited.

GRI Wildlife Crime Prevention Project provides operational support to the ZAWA Intelligence and Investigations Unit involved in these anti-trafficking operations to deter and prevent the illegal wildlife trade in Zambia.

CHINA: China Businessman Jailed For 13 Years Over Tiger Feast

A Chinese businessman who bought and ate three tigers has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, state media reported Tuesday.

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 Tuesday.

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 (US$25,000), 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.

VIETNAM: Illegal Ivory Seized In Vietnam

Police in Vietnam have made two sizeable seizures of illegally imported elephant tusks in the past few days, state media said Wednesday.

The VNExpress news site said customs police in central Danang's Tien Sa port Tuesday discovered "a large amount of elephant tusks and pangolin scales hidden in 19.5 tonnes of red beans in a container that had arrived from Malaysia".

The total weight of the elephant tusks has not been calculated, the report added.

Late last week, police also seized two tonnes of elephant tusks from Nigeria, state media reported.

Communist Vietnam has long been accused of being one of the world's worst countries for trade in endangered species.

Earlier in the month police seized more than 700kg of rhino horns and elephant tusks believed to have originated from Mozambique.

There have been a number of campaigns to warn Vietnamese not to use products from endangered animals but they have had little success.

Tusks and other body parts of elephants are prized for decoration, as talismans, and for use in traditional medicine across parts of Asia.

In Vietnam, a kilogram of elephant tusk sells for as much as US$2,100 (RM8,921) on the black market.

The scales of endangered pangolin ant-eaters are also prized in traditional Chinese medicine, where they are used to boost virility and treat allergies — but activists say their health properties are a myth.

The rare anteater's skin is also used in fashion accessories in Asia and its meat is considered a delicacy in China and Vietnam.

The international trade in ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 following the drop in the population of African elephants from millions in the mid-20th century to just 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.