2 Sentenced in China for Eating Tiger

SHANGHAI, China – A Chinese court sentenced two men to prison for killing and eating a Siberian tiger, a highly endangered species whose population in the wild is only about 500, an official newspaper reported Friday.

Zhang Lichen was sentenced to nine years and Gong Weisheng to five years, the Shanghai Daily reported.

It said the tiger was caught in a trap set by the two men in the mountains near their village in northeast Heilongjiang province early last year. The pair waited for six days until the tiger died, then butchered it and ate the meat, the report said.

Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with only about 500 believed to remain in the wild in the forests of northeastern China and eastern Russia, according to the World Wildlife Federation.

The Chinese government’s Forestry Administration placed all breeds of tigers under “key state protection” in 2001.

Still, the tigers remain threatened by habitat loss from logging and from poachers killing them for their pelts and other body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine.