Tiger, bear seizures in Russia

17 August, 2007

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Tiger, bear seizures in Russia

17 August, 2007

On August 17, Russian custom officers apparently confiscated 500 bear paws (probably mostly Himalayan black bear), and 1 tiger skin and skeleton. The goods were reportedly confiscated from two Chinese who tried to illegally cross the border into China by boat on Lake Khanka, about 300 km north of Vladivostok. 

Earlier in January 2007 a Russian police officer found 283 bear paws, 531 saiga antelope horns, 332 tiger bones, 8 tiger paws, and 3 tiger skins in a car of a Russian citizen during a random check. 

There is no demand or use for these products in Russia, so it seems clear that they were on their way to China.

The large number of confiscated bear paws shows that legalised bear farming and trade in China has not reduced poaching of bears in Russia and the illegal export of their body parts to China.

So much for the logic of tiger farming as the solution to saving the tiger.