Stop Poachers from Internationally Trading Siberian Tiger Parts

Stop poachers from internationally trading Siberian tiger parts

Siberian tigers from the mid 1990's to 2012 have encountered many obstacles to find survival. Mankind has become their worst enemy. There are approximately five hundred Siberian tigers roaming left in Russia, India, and Africa has dropped massively. These species are encountering their habitat being destroyed and having to flee to find a new area to live. Since they are being forced to move, hunting becomes difficult and they even have trouble finding another mate. The biggest issue that is causing the Siberian tiger population to drop is poaching. Poachers for many years now have illegally killed these specific animal species for mainly internationally trading the tiger's body parts for money. People need to see that this is animal cruelty and causing the tiger population to decrease. They need to see how poachers using the tiger's body parts for international trade are an issue worldwide. Due to the increasing amount of poachers within the past ten years in Russia, Asia and India, Siberian tigers are facing extinction by being poached which is animal cruelty, therefore stricter enforcements need to be made where the tigers roam in wild and through legal sanctions by outlawing international trade to ensure that number of poachers decreased.

People hear about or see documentaries how Siberian tigers are being hunted and killed. Not too many people though understand the how poaching is the leading cause of their death. The first problem needed to be noticed is what exactly poachers are doing to cause the tiger population to decrease. Poachers are the victims to Siberian tiger's death. According to researchers from CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in the rural eastern part of Russia currently illegal poaching is the leading occupation that is growing. (Youth, 2008, para. 9). Feldon's film, Tiger Traffic shows footage from Africa at the locations where poachers are killing the tigers for a living. The footage shows the struggling families in the rural areas (Feldon, 2009). One of the poachers said that most of these poachers that are killing these tigers are just doing this to make money and it is not even about having a low income (Feldon, 2009). Many of these poachers see this as a competition with other poachers. Their mindset is about how many tigers they can kill to use their fur as trade or how many bones they can use to sell. They take the money over an animal's life. Poachers do not view this as animal cruelty. They do not see the beauty of the animal's life; they see the beauty of the animal for money.

There are many researchers and scientists who agree that poaching is wrong, especially this specific species Siberian tigers because it is the most popular tiger killed. This issue is been brought up many times and efforts have been made to protect the tigers. The enforcement is called the (CITES) which stands for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The group is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. (Qatar, 2010, para. 6). CITES has been in existence for fifth teen years now. Because of this group the endangered tiger's death rate has slightly dropped. But in 2008 statistics show that the number of deaths started to rise again about 20 percent (Ching, 2012 p. 9). Yes, there are laws enforcing the protection of the tiger have endangered animal rights, but now there are people who are still killing the tiger illegally. Scientists Ahmed and Majumder recently have proven that poachers have been going after the tiger cubs (Ching, 2012 p. 9).

Since poachers have found new ways to continue killing these tigers, the endangered rate has risen again. Due to the poachers killing the tiger cubs the birthrate is dropping and therefore tigers in the wild are not reproducing. According to Dybas (2010) "Now, the poachers have expanded their illegal trade by catching and smuggling cubs that are easier to trap and safer to move away". Dybas' journal talks about how poachers would steal the cubs alive and keep them in their homes (2010). Hearing about the new details on what poachers were doing was very alarming news for researchers. This information was a new example of animal cruelty that was discovered about the Siberian tigers.

Hearing about poachers killing the tigers and selling their fur in the villages illegally was known, but red flags went up when the new issue came up about capturing the tigers as cubs and keeping them until they are big enough to smuggle illegally for trade. "We have had reports of tigers being killed by poachers. But this was the first time we saw that they were captured alive," said R. Morshed, programmer officer at the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh as cited in (Banks 2010, p. 2). Post hearing about the rescue of the baby tiger cubs, the issue of Siberian tigers being endangered has been brought to attention again.

After the fact about the story of how baby tiger cubs were captured alive and kept illegally, the judicial government came up with a new enforcement. Being caught smuggling there is a fine that will be received which is a 500,000 fine, because the government found out that the cubs were being traded for about 2 million (Pederson, 2012 para. 5).The judicial government now thinks that they have tightened the law quite a bit, but there are many that disagree. There were already enforcements made before hearing about the tiger being captured alive, so there are many possibilities that people will go behind the law and still harm these species.

Enforcing these laws is not enough to save the habitat of these tigers. Yes, there are laws for the poachers but the laws are not strictly enforced. There are many discussions about the law and launching of plans to stop poachers, but the issue does little to save the area of where all this action is happening. There has been some progress made. Efforts are being made, but so much more can be done. The judicial government needs see that just putting something on paper will not stop determined poachers from continuing to harm these animals.

Something needs to be done about the rights of the Siberian tiger's habitat. Enforcements should be made so that their habitat can be protected as well. It's not just the poacher's fault to why the tiger's population is decreasing. The power of the judicial government needs to see that only fixing part of an issue is not going to resolve much if there are still so many ways for the Siberian tigers to become extinct. (Rodriguez, 2007, para. 3). Trading tiger parts are what is helping the poachers succeed in