2 tigers found in car in Hanoi

2008-01-09 12:55

Hanoi - Vietnamese police came face-to-face with two live tigers they found in a passenger car in central Hanoi when they busted an illegal wildlife trafficking gang this week, media reports said on Wednesday.

The wild cats had been sedated by the animal smugglers but awoke after the police raid and started chewing up the seats and interior of the car that the traffickers had used to take the tigers to a client in the capital.

Officers from the Hanoi Environmental Police had to knock the 50kg carnivores out again with drugs to take them to a wild animal rescue centre after the bust on Monday evening, state media said.

When they searched the traffickers' homes on the outskirts of Hanoi, police found four more tigers cut up in a freezer, seven live bears and bear parts, rhinoceros horns and elephant tusks, the An Ninh Thu Do newspaper said.

Two people were detained by police, reports said.

One of them told police that he had in the past bought two tiger carcasses from a Hanoi zoo, the Thanh Nien daily reported.

Vietnam, where poachers have decimated wildlife in most forests, is a major trafficking hub for the illegal trade, linking supplier countries such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar with consumers in China and elsewhere.

With rising affluence, Vietnam has also become a growing destination for wildlife meat and the wines and medicines made from the animals which have traditionally been believed to have healing and tonic properties.

- AFP