Relentless Tiger Poaching Brings Activists and INTERPOL Together
January 15, 2010 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis 
Photo courtesy of Brian Scott.
On the Chinese lunar calendar 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which commences on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, symbolizing fighting courage, which was admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household — fire, thieves, and ghosts.
Things are currently a little different in real life. The tiger is not fairing so well against both the destruction of its habitat and poachers.
In the early 1900s, tigers roamed throughout Asia and numbered over 100,000, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Its current estimates indicate that less than 3,500 of these remain as a whole in the wild. Tigers today are pouched for their skins, but almost every part of their bodies can be used for either decorative or traditional medicinal purposes.
alliance, animal rights, eco-tourism, international, logging, wildlife | tagged CITES, INTERPOL, WWF, animal rights, poaching, tigers, wildlife