Royal Bengal Tigers hunted online

The endangered Royal Bengal Tiger is up for sale on the Internet - like any other pet.

Several e-portals, which merchandise pets, have put up advertisements for the sale of a variety of endangered wild animals including the big cat. One of them, www.gotpetsonline.com, had on Wednesday inserted two advertisements for the sale of Bengal tigers. In response, a prospective buyer from Helena in Georgia, US, said he was willing to pay $2,000 — a little over Rs 88,000 — for a Bengal tiger cub.

All is in spite of the fact that trading in Bengal tiger is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species rules.

Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), West Bengal, V.K. Yadav, confirming this, said the state government was "anxious" over the growing number of such advertisements. "This is a dangerous trend," he said, adding that international smugglers' rings were involved. Merchandise on the Internet was easy, cheap and anonymous and many prominent e-portals flash such ads, he said.

Yadav said his department will soon intimate the Ministry of Environment and Forest and "request New Delhi to take up the matter with the western countries". He added that they will also request the Centre to add more teeth to the existing IT laws of the country, specifically to deal with such cases.

Besides the Bengal tiger, an ad offered a "hand-reared" Siberian tiger for £40,000, while the price of a gorilla was £4,500. Buyers had the choice to make payments through all the leading credit cards.

Lions are a dime a dozen here in the states, if that will do 'em. Tigers are more valued, but they too, breed like cats but eat like tigers.

Get one as a pet, if it croaks, one tiger rug coming up.

And the Feddies aren't able to confiscate a properly purchased pet.

Cheaper than a tiger safari in Russia, where the locals shoot the largest tiger, the Siberian tiger. Why - it is a danger to their life. Getting such a pelt back into the states will be either impossible or a sea of red tape (no pun on ESA regs versus Communism intended).

2 posted on 09/29/2005 10:54:27 PM PDT by GladesGuru ("In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles)

Since ESA is an issue now, if that asinine Act was removed, even the rare Siberian Tiger would be commercially raised. Availability of such commercial animals would remove teh poaching pressures now contributing to the eventual extirpation, if not outright extinction of said "endangered" animals.

Removal of ESA will only help animals, unless you are worried about all the agencypersons and bureau-scientists in jobs related to the ESA which would disappear as ESA disappeared.

We can only hope reason replaces agenda and ESA is finally done away with.

Some things can't be fixed, and the Endangered Species Act is one of them.

3 posted on 09/29/2005 11:03:49 PM PDT by GladesGuru ("In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles)

Humanity has a long way to go still in many parts of the world. Superstitous nonsense and poverty drive much of it.
Many animals I fear will ONLY exist in captivity because of this.

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