Woman jailed for cooking tiger carcass

Woman jailed for cooking tiger carcass

 

updated 8:10 a.m. EST, Thu January 31, 2008

 

Story Highlights

Vietnamese woman caught cooking a tiger carcass jailed for two and a half years

Nguyen Thi Thanh, 41, convicted for violating regulations protecting rare wild animals

Police found dead tigers, bear arms, monkey bones and elephant tusks in her flat

 

(CNN) — A Vietnamese woman caught cooking a tiger carcass was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, state media reported Thursday.

 

There are reportedly only about 100 tigers, prized by so-called medicine men, left living in Vietnam.

 

A Hanoi court convicted Nguyen Thi Thanh, 41, for “violating regulations protecting rare wild animals.”

 

She was arrested last September after police raided a house that she rented in the capital city of Hanoi and found dead tigers, bear arms, monkey bones and elephant tusks.

 

Officers found Thanh and three accomplices cooking tiger carcasses, the Thanh Nien daily reported. The three men received suspended sentences, ranging from 24 to 30 months, the daily said.

 

The woman told police she sold the animals’ bone marrow for 6.5 million Vietnamese dong ($400) per gram to traditional medicine men, according to reports at the time.

 

Such medicine men think tiger bones and other parts can cure arthritis and other joint ailments, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

 

Tigers are universally threatened, with only about 100 still living in Vietnam, the World Wildlife Fund said.

 

The southeast Asian country has banned trafficking in endangered animal parts.

 

Last year, the Vietnamese government unearthed 38 cases of illegal trafficking that involved 503 endangered animals, local media said at the time.