A Chinese businessman who bought and ate three tigers has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, state media reported yesterday.
The wealthy real-estate developer, identified only by his surname, Xu (徐), has “a special hobby of grilling tiger bones, boning tiger paws, storing tiger penis, eating tiger meat and drinking tiger blood alcohol,” Xinhua news agency said in June when he went on trial.
Xu organized three separate trips last year for a total of 15 people, including himself, to Leizhou in Guangdong Province, where they bought tigers for a “huge amount of money” that were killed and dismembered as they watched, government-run news portal gxnews.com.cn reported yesterday.
One of them filmed the process of one of the tigers’ slaughter with his mobile phone. The footage was later obtained by police.
Police seized eight pieces of animal meat and bones from a refrigerator in Xu’s home, some of which were later identified as tiger parts, including a penis, the report said, adding that 16 geckos and a cobra had also been found.
A court in Guangxi earlier this year convicted the group of 15 of “illegally transporting precious and endangered wild animal products,” but the conviction was not reported.
Xu was sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined 1.55 million yuan (US$25,000), gxnews.com.cn said, with the others jailed for terms between five and six-and-a-half years, and given smaller fines.
They appealed and a higher court upheld the ruling on Monday, the report said.
Tiger bones have long been an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine, supposedly for their capacity to strengthen the human body, and while they have been removed from its official ingredient list, the belief persists among some.
It is a long-held belief across parts of Asia that penises of animals such as tigers and seals can boost men’s sexual performance.
There is no orthodox scientific evidence for such claims.
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