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East Asian 'Natural' Medicine & the animal parts trade


Dolly Potter MD
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I saw a television show recently, where an animal shelter's operator (in Sth Africa: specialty was nursing orphaned Rhinos back to health) was interviewed. He drew an illustration of how ruthless & time effecient the industry and it's players are. The timeframe is just two days: from the moment a tracker/villager spots a Rhino and relays his position (via GPS) to the shooters, to the moment when that horn hits the market back in China.

 

It's a billion dollar industry, and this ruthless effeciency clearly illustrates this.

 

The Asian population boom, and the strength of it's economy (China primarily) has fuelled demand, and the associated strength of the black-market trade. This Asian Boom, particu larly the emergance of China as economic superpower, has seen a dramatic fall-off in wildlife (exotic species) population numbers over the same period ie. Tigers especially. Of course there is also the physical punishment handed out to live subjects ie. bile milking of caged Black Bears. And the Chinese government's 'Tiger Breeding/Inbreeding Programme for the Farming of Tiger Part' was exposed and supposedly shut down a number of years ago.

 

It got me thinking of something else, along similar lines ie. these zip-eyed arseholes and their brutal adherence to tradition, their relentless of global domination no matter what the field of play is .

 

It was about at the turn of the century that the Chinese women athletes were setting the running track on fire, in middle-long distance track events. They were running all over the African lasses. There was one zip-eyed lass who appeared out of nowhere, who was dominating the 5 and 1O thousand metre disciplines - she was smashing records all over the place. I don't remember her name (somebody can iirc me) but it was probably something like Quang Dung Chung, or Lee Bong Song. But speculation was rife that she was doped up. But at the end of the day she tested negative, and she explained that her rapid rate of improvement was down to a heavily regimented useage of traditional Asian medicine.

 

One thing I've read (and this relates to particular tiger parts, there are probably others) there are medicinal benefits such as increased stamina, acts as lactic acid inhibitor due to the increased production &flow of red blood cells into muscle tissue. This equates to a natural equivalent of EPO, which is a performance enhancer for distance events. The other advantage being they are difficult to test for, in comparison with their synthetic/lab produced counterparts.

 

Makes you wonder if &how much money (and how many exotic animals are being bumped off) is being invested in the pursuit of athletic excellence & Olympic gold medals............. particular by a economic superpower such as China, given their programme of the farming of tiger parts has already being exposed.

Edited by Year Zero
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