BY: PATRICK BROWN
Every year, it is estimated that up to 30,000 primates, 5 million birds, 10 million reptile skins and 500 million tropical fish are traded in illegal markets.
I have been photographing the illegal trade of endangered animals in Asia for more than a decade, covering the dealers, stockpiles, trafficking routes and markets. My large-scale work, Trading to Extinction, examines the impacts of this highly profitable and wide-reaching contraband industry.
“Investigating the trade in its depths is a shocking tale of cruelty, crime and human greed. As with drug trafficking, money fuels the animal trade. Its tentacles wrap around the world, from the remote forests of Asia to the trafficking hubs of Beijing, Bangkok, London, Tokyo and New York.”
Animal parts are regarded to have spiritual healing properties through cultural myths, tiger flesh thought to magically increase strength; rhino horns thought to increase potency. Although the public is recognizing myths, sellers are adapting. Porous rhino horns are now often soaked in Viagra before they reach the market.
The illegal global wildlife trade has doubled since the 1990s, and although the exact value of the market is impossible to pinpoint, experts estimate that it is somewhere close to $10 billion annually.
A poacher who kills a rhino and removes its horn in India gets $350. That same horn sells for $1,000 in a nearby market town. By the time it reaches Hong Kong, Beijing or the Middle East, the horn is worth $370,000
It’s disheartening to know that because of poaching, there are more Bengalese tigers in Texas than in the Bay of Bengal.
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