A few weeks ago a live tiger was found in a Thai woman's luggage as she tried to board a flight from Thailand to Iran. The poor cub was sedated and hidden among other stuffed toys in the bag.
This is beyond getting out of hand - tigers are practically extinct in the wild with less than 4,000 left, and several sub species have already been wiped out as well as a few others well on their way to extinction.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2010/WWFPresitem17844.html
Stories like this have been coming to my attention more and more lately since I adopted a tiger - ie pledged about 10 euro a month to the WWF's conservation efforts. It's something I've always wanted to do but never had the money - and now I finally have a job I can give a little bit of my wages to try and help save this beautiful solitary species from extinction.
Adopting an endangered animal with WWF is a great thing to do - you can choose how much to donate, and they kindly wait until th end of the following month to take the first payment, and tell you exactly when the direct debit will happen each month. I recieved an information packet with a photo of the tiger I "adopted" - a gorgeous, strong, mother of two Bengal tigress. I'm delighted I did it, and there are a range of endangered animals to be chosen from including pandas and polar bears.
For some reason I've always had a soft spot for tigers. I'm not sure exactly what it is about them but I respect them and would be devastated if they weren't around anymore for future generations. So go on, adopt a tiger! The money you give goes towards efforts of WWF to double the number of tigers in the wild by the next year of the tiger. They've also got a group of people who patrol tiger habitats on the lookout for poachers. WWF want to increase the numbers of patrols in the near future, and it's an effort that is unfortunately very necessary.
Tigers are poached for their pelts, and for parts of their bodies used in traditional medicine.
