A Chinese court has sentenced a Chinese man to 13 years in jail after officials discovered he had purchased and eaten three tigers.
The man, identified only by his surname of Xu, had ordered 14 people to deliver the dismembered body of a tiger to his hotel in Guangxi.
He then invited his friends to a meal of tiger meat.
A video showing Xu witnessing the tiger’s death was discovered by police and showed him watching the tiger’s death on March 13, 2013 by electric shock in Longmen township in the city of Leizhou in Guangdong province in China’s south. Another two tigers were killed the same way on April 21 and May 20. Xu bought the flesh, bones, internal organs and blood at the scene.
Xu told the police he had bought the tigers for 440,000 yuan (70,957 U.S. dollars) each. The origins of the tigers are unknown but are suspected to have been smuggled into the country.
The video was seized by police and at Xu’s home, authorities also found animal skeletons and meat, which were later confirmed to be those of a giant gecko and cobra, both endangered animals under government protection in China.
Earlier this year, on April 30, the courts sentenced Xu to 13 years in jail for illegally transporting precious and endangered animals giving him a 1.55 million yuan as penalty for the first instance.
The other 14 who participated in the transport of the tiger’s body received jail terms ranging from five to six years and a half years.
Xu appealed his sentence but earlier this week, that appeal was rejected.
h/t: Xinhua
Photo credit: File pics
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