A filtered report on Tigres breeding unleashes controversy

More than 8000 tigers live in captivity in China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, where they are maintained and raised for commercial uses, so that tourists are taken out with them and for the illegal trade of their bones, skins and other parts.Tiger's bones become a medicinal paste or a wine that, as it is believed, makes those who drink it stronger and more virile, while skins and teeth are used as decoration and jewelry.

It has been documented that captivity tigers facilities make females reproduce at high speed, keep felines in inappropriate enclosures, drugs so that interactions with tourists are safer and feed them with bad diets that leave them demacredor obese.Links with criminal companies have also been documented.

Many conservationists affirm that these "farms" of Tigers dismiss the use of tigers as merchandise and, therefore, also involve a threat to the 3900 tigers that remain in the natural environment, which run the risk of being killed by furtive hunters.For years, international experts in tigers and in the wildlife trade have worked to discourage tigers farms and prevent parts of captive tigers from ending up in the black market.

But now, a draft of a document financed by the United States fishing and wild life and shared with National Geographic seems to legitimize Tigres's breeding, according to experts in illegal tigers trade.The document, whose preliminary title is "Manual of inspection of Tigres in captivity", is based on the premise that part of the commercial breeding of Tigres is acceptable.This premise contradicts the agreed standards at the international level and mine efforts to eliminate this type of facilities.Also, several Tigres experts claim that they were not consulted until after writing the draft and that the scientists who direct the project have little experience in the issue of Tigres breeding.

Gabriel Fava, political advisor to Born Free Foundation, who reviewed the document, told National Geographic that its content is "extremely inappropriate" and "has inherent biases."

"The report promotes the commercial breeding of Tigres as a valid conservation strategy and that is wrong," says Debbie Banks, responsible for the campaign on tigers and crimes against wildlife and flora of the non -profit organization Environmental investigation agency, withHeadquarters in London."This document is dangerously approaching the breeding of Tigers."

Banks points out that none of these facilities has ever reintroduced tigers in nature, nor could it do so, due to inbreeding problems, the fact that they are accustomed to humans and the lack of survival capabilities."These facilities do not contribute to conservation," he says.

The fishing and wildlife service took note of several requests for interviews and statements, but did not respond in time for publication.

A erroneous premise

The document was commissioned by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of wildlife and FloraAnd animals.It was "an easy -to -use inspection guide/manual to verify [that] Tigres captivity breeding facilities" comply with international standards, according to the instructions that the authors were given, which were also shared with National Geographic.

Although the tigers are raised in captivity for commercial purposes, breeding for conservation purposes is the only acceptable goal, according to a standard adopted in 2007 by the member countries of the CITES.

On the other hand, the draft of the document is based on the idea that the breeding of tigers for commercial purposes is acceptable, according to five experts interviewed by National Geographic.The first phrase says: "Tigers breeding for their exhibition to the public or for conservation are widely recognized as legitimate purposes."

That is not true, says Sue Lieberman, Vice President of International Policy of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York."CITES has firmly declared that tigers should only be raised for conservation purposes," he says, "but this document argues that the exhibition is fine and that if the public wants to see more tigers, it is fine to raise more," says Lieberman, thanHe worked on matters of the CITES in the US fishing and wild life service for more than a decade, becoming the head of the office responsible for scientific issues related to the application of CITES.

Despite the 2007 standards, Tigres farms in some countries have grown, says Banks.

Recognizing this, in 2016 and again in 2019, the member countries of the CITES approved a decision to carry out research missions to "facilities that maintain great Asian felines in captivity that can be worrisome."The objective was to determine if the cites had to take more forceful measures, such as the imposition of commercial sanctions, to encourage certain countries to close their commercial farms of tigers.In 2018, a report identified seven countries with 66 worrying facilities of this type, some that seemed to raise tigers for commercial purposes without apparent benefit for conservation and others already involved in illegal trade.

To support research missions, the fishing and wildlife service donated $ 30,000, but when the pandemic prevented visits in person, the service agreed that its funds could be used for other activities, such as the development of inspection guidelines for inspection guidelinesTigres breeding facilities, according to Francisco Pérez, support official to the CITES program.The CITES Secretariat hired the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) to investigate and write the guide.

The IUCN did not answer the questions about the content of the guide.

When on July 2 a draft of the inspection guidelines with several non -profit organizations were shared, among other interested parties, so that they gave their opinion, they immediately raised their concern.At least two of them, the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Born Free Foundation, requested that their names be eliminated from the thanks section.

Six days later, Pamela Scruggs, which directs the Office of the Fishing and Wildlife Service responsible for the application of the CITES in the United States, recognized several non -profit organizations that «taking into account the concerns about the process that youAnd we have observed, we are exploring our options to remedy or improve the situation, ”according to an email sent in his name, shared with National Geographic.The email did not specify what "remedies" could be explored.

They leave out to experts

The high positions of the United States Department of State, which has long opposed the Tigres farms, were only informed of the existence of the report after it was shared with the non -profit groups, according to a spokesman toNational Geographic by email.

"The draft of the text shared with NGOs has serious factual defects and errors that contradict the efforts of the United States and the international community to combat tigers traffic," said the spokesman.

Others, including scientists specialized in tigers and traffic experts of Tigres, claim that they were also excluded from the process.These experts usually participate in the elaboration of policies and guidelines from the beginning, instead of being consulted to give their opinion once a draft has already prepared.The lack of transparency in the conception and creation of the report is worrying, says Lieberman: "Being generous, it may have been done by naivety and ignorance, but it is an imperfect process."

The group of Feline specialists of the IUCN, formed by scientists focused on the conservation of wild feline species, was not consulted during the initial writing process, nor did its members invited to be co -authors, says Kristin Nowell, which formsPart of the group of feline specialists of the IUCN and is one of the main authorities in Tigres and its trade.In fact, the main experience of three of the four authors responsible for carrying out the project is in reptiles.

Daniel Natusch, main author of the report and president of the group of IUCN Boas and Pythons, explained in an email to non -profit organizations with which the draft that had previously developed a more generic inspection guide was previously sharedFor captivity breeding facilities for IUCN, on behalf of the CITES."I don't personally dedicate myself to the tigers, so I don't have any emotional link with the animal or the subject," he wrote."I think that is an advantage."

The report was directed by Kirsten Conrad, a member of the group of specialists in sustainable use and IUCN subsistence means, which encourages sustainable use and trade of wildlife and flora.Conrad has expressed opinions in favor of trade and the breeding of Tigers for more than a decade.Conrad has argued that commercial prohibitions have made tigers be more dead than alive, so the legalization of the sale of tigers raised in farms should be studied as a means to relieve wild tigers, an opinion with which BanksAnd others do not agree.

"Having a person as well as the main author is undoubtedly how to put the fox in charge of inspecting the chicken coop in search of possible security gaps," says Nowell.

Another co -author of the report, Hank Jenkins, has also written in favor of Tigres Commerce.Jessica Lyons, a member of the Sustainable Use Group and two UICN reptile groups, was the fourth co -author.

None of the authors responded to requests for statements.The IUCN did not clarify how it selected the authors or which IUCN agencies participated in the decision -making process."The draft of the inspection manual is not finished," Matthias Fiechter wrote in an email, IUCN spokesman, adding that the IUCN is collaborating with the CITES secretariat to determine the next steps.

Lack of experience

When Natusch shared the draft on July 2 to receive comments, he sent it to select zoos, IUCN specialists, officials from the seven countries with worrying centers for breeding tigers and five non -profit organizations: the World Fund for Nature(WWF), the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Born Free Foundation, the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Species Survival Network.It is not clear what were the criteria used to select those five groups and to exclude others who work closely with tigers, tigers trade and tigers farms.

Natusch invited representatives of the five groups to present comments within six days.«We appreciate your comments and suggestions and we want to incorporate them;However, its final inclusion is not guaranteed, ”Natusch wrote in an email that was forwarded to National Geographic.He added that the contributions of experts from other organizations that do not appear in the list "will not be taken into account."

According to Lieberman and other experts, in addition to disagreeing with the premise of the report that Tigres's commercial breeding for their exhibition to the public is acceptable according to international standards, other errors and omissions indicate a lack of knowledge about the tigers and about the bestway of monitoring them.

For example, the document asks inspectors to count the number of tigers present "to determine how many tigers ... has the installation, and how much has died or has been sold/exported since the last inspection."

But as Banks and other experts in their comments to the authors, the simple fact of counting the tigers is not enough to track them.If an installation sacrifices a tiger for its parts, it could replace it with another that is almost the same age and the inspectors who count the total number of tigers may not realize."Only counting specimens is basically a manual on how to bleach tigers," says Lieberman."It really shows lack of experience."

The document suggests that microchips and ears labels could avoid unregistered tigers exchanges, but Scott Roberton, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in the comments sent to the authors that ears labels are frequently started whenThe tigers live together.Some facilities have also been surprised by removing microchips from dead tigers, probably with the intention of reusing them.

DNA analysis and striped patterns profiles are fundamental to control what happens with animals.In March, for example, Tigres de Mukda's park and farmborn in captivity.

Roberton insists that DNA is of great importance to support the investigations of order forces on animals and parts of furtively hunted animals, as evidenced by Thailand's case.

The report also says that inspectors must "contact the owner or owners of the facilities or their manager to confirm the date and time of the inspection";That is, inspectors should call in advance to notify the owners of the Tigres farms of their visit.

"Due to crime and corruption associated with these facilities, you have to ensure that there are also inspections without notice and not scheduled," says Banks.

Pérez, of the CITES, did not answer the questions about whether the draft of the manual will be modified to reflect the comments and criticisms of the experts, or about how it will proceed to publication, if it is published.

Repeating what others have said, Lieberman concludes: "I hope they archive and eliminate it."