For 5,000 yuan, the 'One-Percent' types might buy Tiger Bone Wine in China. Asians eat tigers for a multitude of medicinal cures even though there is no scientific data supporting tiger parts as offering any health benefits. An adult tiger is comprised of approximately 24 pounds of bone. Tiger bone, like other mammalian bone, yields phosphorus, calcium and iron...minerals that will not cure arthritis or rheumatism or prolong life as reported by traditional medicine men in Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Chinatowns in Europe and North American. A multivitamin has as much curative powers.
'Tiger Farms' across Asia are currently raising some 4,000 animals in squalid environments. This is in violation of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) agreement which prohibits such practices. Trying to not cite violations, these countries won't kill these tigers...they allow them to starve to death. According to Eugene Linden of Time Magazine, " Tiger bone remedies are so ingrained in these cultures that it is not certain their governments could control the trade."
It seems that trying to convince these consumers that this practice is nothing but superstition is a policy doomed to fail based on the popularity and lengthy tradition of use. Due to the ideology of proponent cures, some governments are recommending substitutes; Dog bone seems to be catching on.
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