Big Trouble for Tigers in Laos
Dreams of “a thousand tigers” for wine and dinner plates coming to fruition?
By: Gregory McCann
In 2015, the US Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) surreptitiously recorded the Kings Romans Group in a special economic zone in Laos’s Bokeo Province which is 80 percent owned by Chinese businessmen, notably Zao Wei, who US officials allege is one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers. But it wasn’t drugs that the investigators were looking into. It was the illegal trade in endangered species.
Using hidden cameras, the EIA investigators recorded 26 live tigers and numerous black bears being held in enclosures. They taped restaurateurs blatantly offering tiger meat, tiger wine, bear paw, live pangolins, and a host of other illegal “delicacies.” It was hoped that their exposure of this activity in the SEZ, which includes a casino, a Chinatown, a live animal enclosure, hotels, and other attractions, would spur the Laotian government to crackdown. Nothing of the sort has happened.
In the initial investigation, the head keeper of the live animal enclosure, home to tigers and black bears, boasted: “Yes, after we move to the mountains, there will be hundreds, to over a thousand tigers. A thousand tigers. Let me tell you, once we move to our new location in the mountain, we can bring the tigers, we can slaughter the tigers, brew wine. You know? It’s very easy. This business can be done. It’s a road to wealth.”…