IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| While supplies last - The sale of tiger and other endangered species medicines in North America (1996-1997) | |
| 1998 Full Book | |
TRAFFIC North America investigated the display and sale of endangered species products in two Canadian and five US cities beginning in late 1996 through fall of 1997. TRAFFIC focused on North American Chinatowns because of the concentration of shops that presumably sell those products and that these neighborhoods were visited by Chinese and non-Chinese alike. The TRAFFIC investigator posed as a customer but did not make any attempt to trick any shop owner into offering to sell a product that might not normally have been readily available in the shop. TRAFFIC gathered information on offers to sell medicines that contain or claim to contain legally protected species - rhino _Rhinocerotidae spp_., Tiger _Panthera tigris_ and Leopard _P. pardus_. TRAFFIC also collected information on medicines that contain or claim to contain legally regulated species - Musk Deer _Moschus spp_. and bear _Ursidae spp_. Legally protected species are those that cannot be commercially imported into Canada and the United States for commercial purposes under CITES provisions. Legally regulated species are those that are governed by CITES and that generally may be imported with a permit from the country of origin or of reexport. Of the 110 shops surveyed, 50 percent offered for sale one or more protected species medicines or medicines or products that contained or claimed to contain the target protected species - Tiger, rhinos and leopard. The medicines most commonly found offered for sale were those that contained or claimed to contain musk deer and Tiger parts and products. The least commonly found medicines were those containing or claiming to bear parts and products. At least 31 different types of rhino - or Tiger - containing medicines, produced by between 29 and 34 different manufacturers, were found offered for sale during the survey. The cities with the greatest percentage of shops that offer for sale medicines containing presumably illegally imported protected species are in descending order: New York; Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. |
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