Big cat bones used as unproven medicine in China
In 2011, Ipswich Museum was thrust into the national spotlight when thieves broke in and stole the horn from the stuffed rhino on display.
The unusual burglary was part of a handful of similar incidents around the UK in which gangs targeted museums, auction houses and private collections for rhino horn, which had become so sought after it was worth more than diamonds, gold, heroin and cocaine.
At the time, police warned that its sale was being driven in part by a belief that it can cure cancer or reverse the effects of stroke – particularly in Asia, where it is often powdered and used for medicinal purposes.
Now it has emerged that a similar demand for traditional Asian medicine is threatening the plight of endangered forest jaguars in South America. Investigators have uncovered secretive networks of hunters and smugglers involved in multi-million-pound trafficking chains leading to China.
The big cats are hunted for their body parts, which are illegally sold in a lucrative black market, with a jaguar carcass considered to be worth around £200.
As the animal’s natural forest habitat is increasingly destroyed by logging and mining, it becomes more visible and ever more susceptible to being stalked and poached, pushing it nearer to extinction, The Independent reports.
Working undercover in Suriname for 10 months, investigators for World Animal Protection unearthed evidence of cruel hunts and illegal trading chains, and saw dead jaguars strapped to a tractor and motorbikes.
Jaguars, the largest of South America’s big cats and known for their spot-like elaborate markings, may be tracked for hours or days, as bait of dead dogs is laid for them, then shot dead. Sometimes multiple gunshots leave them seriously wounded, the investigators found.
The bodies are boiled down for up to a week until they turn into a dark glue or treacle-like paste that is sold on the thriving black market in tubs in a trade that until now has gone undocumented.
Teeth and claws are sold as ornaments or for jewellery, and a tooth set in gold in a tourist shop was on sale for $1,200.
Nicholas Bruschi, investigations adviser at World Animal Protection, said: “This investigation has uncovered a shocking underground trade exploiting an iconic animal of the South American rainforests in a barbaric way for unproven traditional Asian medicine.
“Jaguars already face the challenges of habitat destruction and human-animal conflicts. They are now cruelly and needlessly killed, left to die agonising deaths.”
There are an estimated 173,000 jaguars left in the wild, and they are classed as “near-threatened” by the IUCN Red list of threatened species, which means hunting the species is illegal. Numbers have dropped by up to a quarter in two decades.
