ROC Treatment of Tigers

* Victor Chang deserves recognition for his gallant but nevertheless grossly misinformed letter of defense of the Republic of China’s treatment of tigers (Jan. 8). The wildlife conservation law, ostensibly protecting the tiger, was only introduced in Taiwan on June 23, 1989. Therefore to suggest that no cases of tiger slaughter occurred in the preceding five years is absurd.

From mid-1990 and up until less than one year ago, I led an investigative team, largely working undercover, researching the blatant disregard and lack of enforcement of this law on Taiwan. We discovered restaurants shamelessly serving soup brewed from tiger genitalia, illegal farms breeding tigers for the catering and pet trade, warehouses containing vast stocks of tiger skins and bone. In one case a complete skeleton was assembled in front of me to verify the authenticity of the product. And hundreds of pharmacies throughout the island openly display and sell tiger parts and derivatives.

All these events were covertly recorded on video film and will shortly be shown on the U.S. Discovery channel in a television documentary film entitled “The Tigers of Thailand.” This secret evidence played a crucial part in the certification of Taiwan by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt under the terms of the Pelly Amendment last September. President Clinton has deferred the possible imposition of trade sanctions against Taiwan, permissible under this act, until late March of this year.

The ROC on Taiwan is far from “one of the leaders of wildlife protection in Asia,” and has, in fact, an international reputation in this regard for which it should be justifiably ashamed.

Only through the publication of such hard-hitting advertisements as the one so ungenerously referred to by Chang (Dec. 27), may the American people be enlightened as to the true reality behind these issues and be allowed the opportunity to debate the question of continued support for Taiwanese imports.

MICHAEL P. DAY

Chief Investigator and Board Chairman

The Tiger Trust

Newmarket, Suffolk, U.K.