Hong Kong outrage over tiger consumption is pure hypocrisy
Alex Frew McMillan
A property developer in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was last month jailed for eating meat from at least three tigers and drinking their blood. A tiger penis was found in his fridge and he admitted to spending big bucks in Guangdong to have the tigers slaughtered.
Hongkongers like to think they're above the stranger appetites of their mainland cousins, but there are still some antiquated ideas here about our relationship with wild animals.
Take the hypocrisy surrounding the city's licences for owning ivory. Why are ivory traders treated differently to restaurant owners, whose licences are searchable online? Why has the sudden "privacy" of rich hoarders of expensive collectibles become paramount? And why are we even trading the body parts of endangered animals?
On a recent press trip, I got chatting with a mainland journalist about the sad plight of the rhino. "Well, you know, we [Chinese] think rhino horn helps a lot of diseases, particularly it aids digestion," the otherwise sensible editor said.
Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same substance that makes up human nails and animal hooves. You might as well eat your fingernails. That advice was met with silence.
As a South African, the Kruger National Park - a pristine piece of wilderness the size of Israel - is my favourite place on Earth. In each camp, there are boards on which visitors can post their sightings: leopard, lion, buffalo. But there are no markers for rhino. Armed poachers stalk the park, so the rhinos' whereabouts are now kept a secret.
There were half a million rhinos worldwide at the start of the last century. There are 29,000 today. Deaths may exceed births next year, a tipping point leading to extinction.
If you've got an upset stomach, take some Imodium. Leave these innocent animals alone.
