A Chinese man has been jailed for 12 years for killing and eating a rare Indochinese tiger. Kang Wannian, a villager from the southern province of Yunnan, said he had encountered the tiger while out fishing, and killed it in self-defense. The animal may have been China's only wild Indochinese tiger, which is on the brink of extinction. Four other men were jailed for sharing the tiger meal and covering up the incident. Kang was confronted by the tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near China's border with Laos. He said he shot the animal after dark and claimed that, at the time, he did not know it was an endangered Indochinese tiger. According to local media, Kang was sentenced to 10 years for killing a rare animal plus two years for illegal possession of firearms. The court in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, also ordered him to pay a fine of 480,000 yuan ($70,000; £44,000). Fewer than 1,800 Indochinese tigers are thought to be living in the wild, in the forests of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma. The only known wild Indochinese tiger in China was photographed in 2007 at the same reserve that Kang visited. The tiger has not been seen since Kang's meal, and there is speculation that Kang could have eaten the last one. Source ---- I guess if it wasn't rare, would have been legit... I bet it taste like chicken
its called survival of the fittest it is the weapons we create that made us the dominant species but still if its really that extinct shouldnt it be in captive or something i think he is unlucky to be caught eating it
Good point. I mean, how does he know it was an endangered animal. I don't even know how to tell which tigers are on the verge of extinction. What if it really did attack him and he had to resort to self-defense... assuming he didn't eat it, I wonder if he would still be jailed for killing a rare species.
If he hadn't eaten it and reported the incident authority then he would probably avoided the jail term and just get a few thousand dollars fine instead.
That's a little too harsh for killing the tiger in self defense. They should give him a metal for not wasting food = tiger
Yeah, I kind of agree that it would have been worse to waste the dead tiger by not eating it... But it's also not self defense if the tiger wasn't actually attacking the man. Maybe the tiger was lonely seeing as it was the only one left in the area!!
Just an FYI, the article from the BBC is dated 22 December 2009 "...when there are no laws" ??? Excuse me, but what part of Endangered Species or illegal firearms did you not understand, LOL... Animals only make it onto an endangered species list if it becomes illegal to hunt, kill, hurt or interrupt their habitat in any way; and it is illegal for private citizens to to own or possess firearms in China. Thus, our hapless villager broke two very important laws. To be honest, I too, (like respondent Rowdy331) doubt the veracity of his self defense story. He was probably purposely hunting the tiger, whose body parts sell for tremendous amounts as they are used in rare but traditional Chinese medicines. He got off rather lightly in my view. IMHO, if anything, China is probably the most legalistic that it has ever been since the Qin; it is a nation that wholly rules by law, which is, btw, what makes it so strict. One has to imagine that if one lived in an area that is indigenous to specific fauna, I suspect that I would have some inking where legalities of hunting certain species lay. The issue of hunting tigers in China has had a long history; if I had to bet on one or the other, I would venture that he knew perfectly well what he was doing, along with the illegality of his acts. That is, a normal person does not usually go fishing with a gun in hand.
^ Very. Now that should teach him a lesson not to possess an illegal firearm during fishing and not to eat something without research.
