New | Arrested gang believed to have slaughtered 'more than 10' wild tigers

Sixteen members of a gang believed to have slaughtered more than 10 captured tigers over the years have been arrested in Zhanjiang, southern Guangdong, revealing a secret trade that has supplied blood sport, traditional remedies and exotic delicacies to wealthy customers and local officials, the Nanfang Daily reports.

Zhanjiang police raided a residential building in Leizhou on March 14 and found 16 people slaughtering a tiger, police said on their official microblog. One of the suspects jumped or fell to his death from the building while trying to flee.

Police seized the carcass of the tiger, believed to have been captured in Vietnam and shipped alive to China, assorted tiger goods to be sold on the black market, and a cache of weapons used to capture the big cats, including knifes, bullets and stun guns.

According to the report, watching the big cats being killed in the field then cooked and eaten had became popular among wealthy businessmen and government officials not only in Leizhou, but in Zhanjiang.

Many local officials, including delegates to the municipal people’s congress and senior officials at county and township level, are enthusiastic about such exotic banquets or drinking tiger-bone wine. The report said private businessmen would often pay for the officials to attend such events.

It is not known exactly how many tigers have been killed illegally in Leizhou. This case is only the third reported by local police – the others were in 2007 and 2010. But it is estimate as many as 20 were slaughtered and sold at local markets in that time, the report said.