TRUSSED and tethered between the bars of the cage, the tiger shown above only had minutes to live.
Dozens of Taiwanese watched as the animal's throat was slit. The blood was mixed with whisky and drunk by the cupful for ''strength''.
By the time the tiger was dead, about 20 minutes later, its eyes, penis, bones, skull and blood would have been auctioned to the highest bidder.
The ritual was legal in Taiwan when these pictures were taken in a town to the north of Kaohsiung in the mid-1980s. Today it is not - yet still it goes on.
More than 80 live tigers have been found in Taiwan, despite the country having signed CITES in 1989.
Tiger Trust investigators recently found a farm in Taipei's suburbs where the animals were kept in tiny cages and expected to breed, before being sold to chemists and restaurants. One four-month-old cub was valued at $3,600.