Bad Medicine for Big Cats

The bones, blood, and body parts of big cats are big business.  They are the ‘vital’ ingredients in a range of products such as balms, capsules, and wines—sold as cures for multiple ailments ranging from insomnia and malaria, to meningitis and impotence.   

It’s all part of a booming traditional Asian medicine market that is devastating tigers, leopards, jaguars, and other big-cat species.  Unfortunately, there’s little evidence that these cures work—though the demand for them is leaving a tragic and bloody legacy.

SCARY STUDY

A new international study by London-based NGO World Animal Protection has uncovered a story of horrific animal exploitation that could well lead to the extinction of some of our planet’s most iconic predators.   

Focusing on big-cat products, the study shows that lions and tigers are being killed in the wild and also captive-bred in their thousands, often in incredibly cruel conditions, to help feed the insatiable demand for traditional medicines.   

In an effort to understand why Asian customers are driving this market of misery, the investigators surveyed consumer attitudes.  In China and Vietnam—by far the biggest wildlife-consumer nations—they found high levels of belief in the unproven medical properties of big-cat parts.  

Moreover, most consumers believe that wild-caught cats have more potent medicinal properties than do captive-bred animals (84 percent of consumers in Vietnam, 55 percent in China).  Such views are fueling the rampant poaching of wild cats, including several endangered species.

JAGUARS DYING

The tale of the jaguar is particularly sad and instructive.  This iconic predator of New World rainforests was never part of traditional Asian medicine.  But as tigers have become vanishingly scarce, the market for jaguar teeth, bones, and pelts has exploded in Latin America.  

Chinese traders are especially active, with China now being the largest foreign investor in infrastructure and extractive-industries in Latin America.  Such developments are opening up the region’s last intact forests like a flayed fish, making it easier for poachers to find and kill jaguars.  

Trading in jaguar body parts is illegal but this hasn’t stopped the plunder.  Jaguar numbers have plummeted in the last two decades, with the insatiable demand for traditional Asian medicine being a large and growing part of the problem.  

BAD MEDICINE

The study paints a picture of a cruel trade based on faith-based cures and strong cultural beliefs.

Is there a solution?  The researchers found that a majority (60-70 percent) of Chinese and Vietnamese respondents claimed they would not buy big cat products that are illegal or detrimental to the species’ conservation.  A similar proportion of consumers claimed they would be willing to try herbal alternatives if they were cheaper.   

However, given the strong cultural belief in the power of traditional medicines and the fact that regulations aren’t staunching big-cat poaching, tougher laws by themselves aren’t enough.  

Perhaps we can learn from other areas of conservation.  For example, shark-fin soup was formerly an expensive but highly popular meal in China, as it symbolized success and wealth.  But its popularity was pushing many shark species to extinction, and the fishery was notably cruel—as shark fins are harvested by slicing off the fins of living sharks and then dumping the still-living fish back into the ocean, where they endure a slow death.   

High prices didn’t slow the shark-fin trade, but what did work was a high-profile campaign involving community leaders, students, and celebrities to underscore the cruelty of the harvest practices.  This was combined with the Chinese government banning the meal from official banquets.  As a result, consumption of shark-fin soup has plummeted.   

We need similar actions for big cats, which are now in trouble all around the world.  Traditional Asian medicine is a key factor in their ongoing decline, and demand will only fall if cultural attitudes change.  Given that China and Vietnam are authoritarian nations, clear signals from their leaders could have a dramatic impact on this fatal trade.