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Chinese parks accused of selling tiger bone wine

Tiger bone wine is still being made and sold by some animal parks in China, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Staff at two parks offered to sell the illegal drink, made from carcasses soaked in rice wine, to researchers from the UK-based NGO.

The EIA said they were offered the wine, an alcoholic "health tonic", at the privately-owned Qinhuangdao Wild Animal Park, in Hebei province.

The trade in parts of the endangered species has been subject to an international ban since 1987, and has been outlawed in China since 1989. But despite global conservation efforts, tiger numbers continue to decline.  

During last year’s high-level summit of the global Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, the Chinese delegation raised the possibility of ending its domestic ban in order to allow the use of farmed tiger parts.

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