TCM, Poaching, Exotic Pet Trade, and Shark Finning

Ga Maleven

While I have already discussed how hunting is causing extinction as well as extinction caused by animal agriculture, poaching for TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), food, and pets is causing a great toll on wildlife populations. Poaching can be for a single part of an animal’s body, their flesh to dine on, or to sell them as pets. Regardless of the end result, the methods of poaching are cruel, destructive, and wiping out entire species.

Traditional Chinese Medicine may have a few herbalistic uses that are actually beneficial and harmless, but some verge on the edge of “black magic” like qualities. Rhino horn, which is made of the same substance as fingernails, is often collected in the belief that it will cure cancer, acne, arthritis, and even be used as an aphrodisiac. Rhinos are being hunted down by the hundreds yearly for their horn, causing a dramatic population decline. As the journal on hunting explained that “controlled” hunting is decimating numbers, poaching is taking even more. Even the very young rhinos are being killed.

Rhinos are shot until dead or severely wounded by high powered rifles to even machine guns, or simply poisoned. Their horns are cut off, a technique of forcing a knife beneath the horn and then “popping” it off is used, or the section under the horn is removed with a chainsaw. Most rhinos die before the dehorning or shortly after the excruciating pain. Rarely, some live long enough to be rescued, but not all make it. Baby rhinos may be left alive beside their dead mothers, or killed for the stub of a horn they have. Recently, poachers have even killed a rhino in a French zoo, and in a separate incident attacked a rhino sanctuary and killed several baby rhinos along with even sexually assaulting a staff member.

Rhino horn is the only ingredient used in TCM. Bear bile is also collected in belief that it has incredible healing powers for most severe illnesses, and that it works just like Viagra. Bears, often moon bears, are kept in tiny cages, going insane from that alone. They wear metal “vests” and have a hole torn into their body where a tube runs through to vacuum out the bile being produced. They are forcibly impregnated, never see the sun or touch grass, and beaten regularly. On top of this, studies have shown that bear bile actually harms the human body and causes illnesses rather than cure them.

Tiger bones are ground up to make a wine which is, again, believed to help with sex drive, cure diseases, and also as a delicacy. Tigers are bred on tiger farms where tourists may play and interact with the cubs. Once tigers are fully grown they are starved, tortured, and killed. Their skins and heads are often sold as decoration while their bones are turned into wine. Many zoos around and in China will sell their “surplus” or ill tigers to be killed for this.

Snake blood, pangolins, seahorses, musk deer, and even domesticated animals such as dogs are killed, tortured, and eaten for the belief it will cure diseases, aid in sex, remove blemishes, and even increase life. No scientific research has linked any animal products healing humans, and certainly the horns of rhinos is not helping. Even shark fins are consumed in soup for the same purpose. Sharks have their fins cut off and thrown back into the ocean where they slowly sink to the bottom, suffocating to death if they don’t bleed out first.

Poaching elephants for their ivory is heavily fueled by the Chinese who turn the tusks into art, trinkets, and ornaments. Elephants are already on decline from trophy hunters and loss of habitat, but now thousands are being brutally guns down and poisoned for their tusks. Their faces are sawed in half to remove the up to ten foot long tusks from the root. With how slow elephants reproduce, it is especially decimating their numbers in the wild.

Poaching for animal skins of endangered species from lions, exotic birds, and antelope is having more devastating consequences on these species as well as those who rely on them for food or population control. Zoos, as explained in this journal, are not helping with their breeding programs due to not introducing enough genetic diversity, nor preparing the animals to be returned to the wild. This leads to the wild populace to continue plunging down.

Some practices of selling live, baby animals in key-chains, lamps, and vases continue to pop up. Not only is it immensely cruel to keep an animal in such a small container, but the animals only live for a short period of time before running out of oxygen and food. Sadly, many tourists think it’s “cool” to have such trinkets, supporting this abuse.

While eating animals period is cruel and immensely unhealthy to humans, some cultures take this a step further by consuming animals while still alive. Octopuses, baby mice, frogs, shrimp, fish, and even insects are dined upon while fully alive and conscious. They are often chopped up, boiled, and gutted, ensuring they don’t die, but still feeling all the pain and horror before being placed on a plate with sauce and eaten. Some are simply thrown on the plate with a sauce and eaten.

Poaching live animals to sell in the exotic pet trade is another serious matter. Lions, tigers, snakes, bears, antelope, oryx, slow loris, sugar gliders, monkeys, tarantulas, turtles, parrots, and many, many other species are taken from the wild, often as babies, and sold in markets or at auction as pets. These animals are not regulated, terrified, and don’t always get a good home. Many get these animals for bragging rights or feeling special, and don’t actually have the knowledge or care to properly care for them. This has caused not only abuse towards the animals, but also the animals attacking and sometimes killing the humans. These animals are wild and are not use to being in a cage, and are simply scared of what’s happening.

Some have been bred and born in captivity so are use to human interaction, living in a house, and other such things pets are accustomed too, but they are still not domesticated, still require a lot of space/exercise, and still are very dangerous. Some breeders/sellers of these wild animals will declaw, pull out teeth, and otherwise mutilate an animal’s body to ensure they are easier to sell for being “safer.”

Many of these animals are drugged to smuggle on planes and across borders. Not all make it. Some people have placed baby monkeys in their underwear, parrots in water bottles, and tiger cubs in suite cases to get by customs. If the smuggling doesn’t kill the animals, their new owners may not treat them well enough to live long or happy lives.

These exotic pets have not only caused their humans to die, but other humans, children, and domesticated pets. While not all cases of exotic pets have ended in tragedy, these are still wild animals who have specific needs, still pose a serious threat, and even if their owners are kind, the breeders or smugglers were not. Some animals have been taken from the wild to be sold for hunting, or in cases such as Borneo with orangutans, used for prostitution.

Poaching animals for any purpose, eating them alive, and stealing from the wild to be a house pet is not good for these animals or their populations. To help these animals do not get exotic animals and instead support a wildlife rescue. Do not use, buy, or eat anything with animals products, and be cautious of where you get legal exotic pets such as tarantulas, snakes, lizards, and parrots. Despite being legal for many species of reptiles and birds, smuggling from the wild still occurs.