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The dismal science
To the Editor:
No wonder economics was called "the dismal science."
In his 8/15/06 op-ed, "Sell the Tiger to Save It," Barun Mitra
presents the worst possible proposal for preserving this
magnificent species. The notion that an animal that is one of our
planet's most beautiful embodiments of wildness should be
exploited for commercial purposes harkens back to a time when
animals were viewed as unfeeling machines placed on earth for
mankind's purposes. One hundred years ago, tigers were abundant in
China. Declared pests by Mao's government, which placed a bounty on
their heads, they were hunted to the edge of extinction. To supply
skins, and parts for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), poachers have
turned their sights on the dwindling populations in India and the
Russian Far East. Mitra's solution of farming tigers to save them will
do the opposite of what he claims--the demand for animal products for
bogus TCM remedies will grow, and every last tiger in the wild will be
slaughtered. The hope for wild tigers, and for countless other species
being pursued through Asia's forests for their paws, organs, and
whiskers, lies in habitat protection, and in encouraging the
substitution of non-animal ingredients in TCM. Turning wilderness into a
supermarket will ultimately lead to the impoverishment, and then
destruction, of homo sapiens as well.
Jennifer Scarlott
Director
International Conservation Initiatives
Sanctuary Asia
http://www.sanctuaryasia.org
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