Russian police have raided premises in Moscow and arrested a Vietnamese citizen with the head and skin of a critically endangered Siberian tiger.
Following a search of the property they also found 59 big cat teeth and four bones. They are currently awaiting expert identification on these body parts to determine if they came from a tiger or from the critically endangered amur leopard.
If suspicions that the teeth have come from an amur leopard this would be devastating for conservation plans as less than 50 are thought to remain in the wild.
Vietnam is a major consumer country that is leading to large losses of wildlife across the world.
CITES 2016 should not be a time for discussion of a legal rhino horn trade but for the CITES community to pull together and issue an immediate trade ban against Vietnam until it is able to control the demand of illegal wildlife products and body parts of endangered wildlife in it’s borders.
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