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There's A Really Sad Truth Behind This Viral Video Of Tigers Attacking A Drone

There's A Really Sad Truth Behind This Viral Video Of Tigers Attacking A Drone

This is shocking.

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A viral video of Siberian tigers chasing and destroying a drone has a depressing story behind it.

ITV News shared a 47 second clip of Siberian tigers knocking a drone out of the sky in China, the video was quickly picked up by a bunch of news outlets and shared thousands of times.

However, it has since emerged that the footage was likely to be filmed on a tiger slaughter farm in north-east China called the 'Harbin Siberian Tiger Park'.

Science journalist John R Platt took to twitter to say:

And, according to Big Cat Rescue the park has been running as a legit animal rescue park, open to tourists, for some time. A report from the Environmental Investigation Agency in 2013, named Harbin as one of the biggest tiger breeders in the country, but they're not doing this for conservation - they're actually breeding the animals for their meat, pelts and bones, which can be turned into something called 'bone wine'.

Bones and meat are worth big bucks, being used in traditional medicine, while the skins are sold for clothes and fashion accessories.

A Siberian tiger. Credit: PA

In 2014 an investigative reporter from McClatchy visited the park and found them making tiger wine, despite the practice being illegal for more than ten years at that point.

They wrote: "Since the 1940s, China's wild tiger population has dropped from about 4,000 to an estimated 20 to 50 animals.

"A visit to the park also reveals that many of the park's 500 Siberian tigers are kept in small cages, visibly rolling in their excrement.

"The potential revenue gives park managers little incentive to keep the tigers alive."

The report also claims that just 500g of tiger bone can be sold for up to £4000. And a bottle of 'tiger bone wine' is sold for between £80 to £600.

The world is no stranger to the mistreatment of animals. Similar to these tigers, rhinos and elephants face perils, mainly because of poachers.

Kaziranga National Park, in India, has the rule that authorities can shoot poachers in order to protect the wildlife there.

Though controversial, and fairly immoral, the park's conservation of rhinos has been immensely successful. When it was set up a century ago, Kaziranga only had a few Indian one-horned rhinoceroses, now they have 2,400, the BBC reports.

In the recent past Sir David Attenborough and his team visited the park to film Planet Earth II, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who visited last year.

Credit: PA

The rule states that rangers have been given powers by the government to shoot and kill those they suspect might be poaching. This means that there's a possibility that someone who is innocent may be shot.

"The instruction is whenever you see the poachers or hunters, we should start our guns and hunt them," a ranger told BBC News. "Fully ordered to shoot them. Whenever you see the poachers or any people during night-time we are ordered to shoot them."

The BBC reported that during 2015 more people were shot by guards at the park than rhinos were killed by poachers. While the number of rhinos being killed being down is a positive, it is questionable whether or not the act of shooting, and in some instances killing, people in order to save them is okay.

Avdesh, the guard who spoke to BBC News, claims that he's shot two people in the four years he's been working at Kaziranga. He says that he's never killed anyone, but if he had there'd likely be no consequences for his actions.

Rhino's horns can be sold as miracle cures for a lot of illnesses and go for a hell of an amount - as much as $6,000 for 100g - which is why poaching is so rife.

Featured Image Credit: CCTV+/YouTube

Topics: Zoo, China

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