I was watching a documentary about the illegal poaching of wild tigers in Asia. Apparently tiger parts are used, and have been used for thousands of years, in holistic Chinese medicine. One of the more popular uses is to make Tiger Bone Wine. After much outcry the practice of killing wild tigers, selling tiger parts and selling concoctions made with tiger parts has become illegal -- although the undercover reporter had no problem finding the black market.
Did I mention that tigers are on the endangered species list? So there's this facility in China that took 10 tigers from the wild and began mating them. Now they "have more tigers than they can count," per the woman giving the tour of the facility. The head scratcher is that no tigers have been re-released into the wild. The theory is essentially that this facility is breeding tigers to provide underground access to Tiger Bone Wine and such. That sounds pretty abominable, right?
Well, I got to thinking... why is that different than what the United States does with cows? Currently the only wild cows in the United States are of the bison variety. The domestic cow, Bos taurus, no longer roams free but are, of course, bred and used for meat, dairy, leather, etc. So I wonder if there is outrage in India, where the cow is sacred, with people doing documentaries on how Americans breed this would be extinct animal for consumption? Is the only difference that the tiger is really cool looking? Or maybe because tigers looks majestic yet cuddly? Maybe the wild, domestic cow became extinct before people knew they were supposed to be outraged?
I could be way off on this but it was just a thought. I mean, I see the legal difference but not the moral difference.
Just Joe
NEXT WEEK: Two Very Different Things
No comments:
Post a Comment