The Horrific Big Cat Industry in China

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For the first time, a global examination of the big cat industry in China will shine a light on the horrors of the supply chain of big cats for use in products in Chinese medicine. World Animal Protection has completed an examination of the industry and what was uncovered is absolutely horrific.

Big cats bred for Chinese medicines have a horrendous life from the minute they are born in this industry. From birth, lion cubs particularly suffer the highest forms of exploitation. Breeding facilities in South Africa were exposed for having some of the cruelest and most despicable conditions for the lion cubs to endure. There were tiny, dark cages with cubs crying and in some cases, cubs missing limbs and suffering from deformities from inbreeding. This is only the beginning of their awful lives destined for slaughter.

From the beginning, they are used in petting zoos where they are forced to endure repeated human contact for photos and other ridiculous entertainment purposes. Once they begin to mature, they are used in other exploitative situations including lion walking experiences once again being used for the entertainment of humans at the expense of their sanity and well being. Once grown, they are moved to canned game hunting facilities which basically implies they are put into areas where they cannot reasonably escape and people pay thousands of dollars to stalk and shoot them dead. 

Once slaughtered, they are skinned and used for trophies with the bones being exported to China where they are used for medicine. Shockingly, a high percentage of Chinese people truly believe that these medicines really work despite having absolutely no scientific proof that they are effective at all. An alarmingly high percentage of people believe that wild cat bones yield stronger medicines than those bred for medicine which leads to cubs being stolen from the wild and an increase in illegal poaching of big cats like jaguars, tigers, and lions. This false belief that these medicines are beneficial is fueling an industry that is inhumane and exploitative but also pushing these wild cats closer and closer to endangerment and inevitably, extinction.

There is hope however as a good percentage of people surveyed said they would be willing to try herbal and synthetic alternatives to big cat medicines if the price was right. It is imperative that global condemnation continues in an effort to deter more people from utilizing big cat medicines. Without these herbal alternatives picking up steam and becoming more mainstream, more big cats will be born into a life of absolute misery.

What this also demonstrates to me is that there is no animal safe from humans and their continued desire for animal related products. When you look at big cat breeding facilities, what is the difference between the misery those cats endure over the factory farming industry of meat? These industries are identical in their methods and prove that we will go to any length to utilize animals for our own benefit. Whether it's medicine from cat bones, meat from animals bred into factory farms, performing animals in circus' that live in cages and are beaten to perform, or canned hunting experiences, we are taking advantage of every single species on this planet. Our salacious need for exerting our dominance over all other species on this planet is leading us to a mass extinction.

We are witnessing one of the largest mass extinctions in our history and it is entirely human caused. Whether through the effects of climate change, illegal poaching and habitat loss, overfishing etc., we are pushing millions of species to extinction and we're showing no signs of stopping. What will we do when we have nothing left? Will we turn to cannibalism? Will we turn to forced slavery? Inbreeding to produce humans used for experiments, entertainment, and medicines? 

It's a frightening thought to think that people really don't see what's happening to the world. Luckily, the rise of veganism, vegetarianism, and animal activism continues to grow. All we can hope is that the world catches on before it is too late.

HAPPY VEG