Would you tell me your opinions on the following accounts of destruction of nature committed by humans?
1/
"Many people in China have a belief that various tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and aphrodisiacs. There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned, and the government has made some offenses in connection with tiger poaching punishable by death. Furthermore, all trade in tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993. Still, there are a number of tiger farms in the country specializing in breeding the cats for profit. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today."
2/
"The most obvious distinguishing characteristic of the rhinos is a large horn above the nose. Rhinoceros horns, unlike those of other horned mammals, consist of keratin only and lacks a bony core, such as bovine horns. Rhinoceros horns are used in traditional Asian medicine, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman.
One repeated misconception is that rhinoceros horn in powdered form is used as an aphrodisiac in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is, in fact, prescribed for fevers and convulsions."
3/
"Pangolins are also in great demand in China because their meat is considered a delicacy and some Chinese believe pangolin scales reduce swelling, promote blood circulation and help breast-feeding women produce milk. This, coupled with deforestation, has led to a large decrease in the numbers of Giant Pangolins.
Pangolin populations have suffered from illegal trafficking. In May 2007, for example, Guardian Unlimited reported that 31 pangolins were found aboard an abandoned vessel off the coast of China. The boat contained some 5,000 endangered animals.
The Guardian recently provided a description of the killing and eating of pangolins: ‘A Guangdong chef interviewed last year in the Beijing Science and Technology Daily described how to cook a pangolin: ‘We keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood. It is a slow death. We then boil them to remove the scales. We cut the meat into small pieces and use it to make a number of dishes, including braised meat and soup. Usually the customers take the blood home with them afterwards.’ "
4/
To facilitate the bile milking process, the bears are commonly kept in cramped extraction cages, also known as crush cages. While this allows for easier access to the abdomen, it also prevents the bears from being able to stand upright, and in some extreme cases, move at all. Living up to twenty-five years in this extreme confinement, results in severe cases of mental stress as well as severe muscle atrophy.[2] The World Society for the Protection of Animals reports that investigators saw bears moaning, banging their heads against their cages, and chewing their own paws. The mortality rate is high. Bears in bile farms suffer from a variety of physical problems which include loss of hair, malnutrition, stunted growth, muscle mass loss and often have teeth and claws extracted.[3] When the bears stop producing bile after a few years, they are usually killed for their meat, fur, paws and gall bladders. Bear paws are considered a delicacy."
5/
"Seahorse populations are thought to have been endangered in recent years by overfishing and habitat destruction. The seahorse is used in traditional Chinese herbology, and as many as 20 million seahorses may be caught each year and sold for this purpose.[11] Medicinal seahorses are not readily bred in captivity as they are susceptible to disease and have somewhat different energetics than aquarium seahorses.
Import and export of seahorses has been controlled under CITES since May 15, 2004. However, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, and South Korea have chosen to opt out of the trade rules set by CITES. [12]
The problem may be exacerbated by the growth of pills and capsules as the preferred method of ingesting medication as they are cheaper and more available than traditional, individually tailored prescriptions of raw medicinals but the contents are harder to track. Seahorses once had to be of a certain size and quality before they were accepted by TCM practitioners and consumers. But declining availability of the preferred large, pale and smooth seahorses has been offset by the shift towards prepackaged medicines, which make it possible for TCM merchants to sell previously unused juvenile, spiny and dark-coloured animals. Today almost a third of the seahorses sold in China are prepackaged. This adds to the pressure on the species."
Sources:
1/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger#Traditional_Asian_medicine
2/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros#Rhinoceros_horns
3/
3/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin#Threats
4/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_bile#Living_conditions
5/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahorse#Use_in_Chinese_medicine
A further question: if you could make a law that prohibits all of such actions, what punitive measure would be included in that law?
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