I remember seeing this story last October and thinking "That's odd, tigers for sale in France?":
French couple paid $7,000 for tiger cub they thought was Savannah cat
No wonder they were purr-plexed.
A couple in France thought they bought a special kitty — only to discover they had taken a tiger cub home, according to a report.
The unidentified couple from Le Havre told police they stumbled across an online ad two years ago for a Savannah cat, which is a cross between an exotic African serval and a domesticated feline, French outlet France Bleu reported....
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Here's the rest of the story from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, March 15:
Leading Europe as the nation with the most captive tigers and representing one of the continent’s top illegal tiger trafficking hotspots, France is home to a booming tiger trade, according to an article published Friday.
Investigative environmental outlet Oxpeckers claims that as of December 2020 there are 635 registered tigers in France, some 500 of which belong to travelling circuses. Furthermore, regular legal French imports and exports of tigers are believed to sometimes serve as a cover for illegal wildlife trafficking.
This troubling news comes amid growing evidence that tigers are being bred in captive facilities – or “tiger farms”-- across the European Union for export to illegal markets abroad, particularly those in Asia selling tiger skins, bones and organs.
“Some European tigers are exported to Asia, because the buyers there believe that European big cats are bigger and stronger, which makes them especially valuable for breeding,” says Kieran Harkin, head of wildlife campaigns at the international NGO Four Paws....
....MUCH MORE
