Wildlife smuggling in Asia still a roaring trade

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

HONG KONG (AFP) — Carved up for the dinner table, ground up for medicine or simply sold off as exotic pets, Asia's endangered species are at the core of a lucrative smuggling trade that shows little sign of easing off.

An abandoned wreck of a boat off China's southern coast last month exposed its breadth: on board, dying in the baking sun, were more than 5,000 lizards, tortoises and pangolins, not to mention 21 bear paws.

Once ashore they would likely have ended up as food or used in traditional medicines.

It is not just small animals. Tigers are dying out in India and Nepal. At least 1,000 orangutans are trafficked out of Indonesia's Kalimantan province alone every year. Bears are hunted for their bile, rhinos for their horn.

"People see it as quick...