Look at the photo on the left. It shows a Malaysian tiger (Panthera tigris) caught in a snare. You do not need an over-active imagination to understand that an animal in this man-made hell will die a slow and very painful death. Fortunately, this magnificent and now rare tiger was saved by the same hand that fashioned the tool that would have ended it's life in a most cruel way. A regular anti-poaching patrol by the World Wildlife Fund found the five year old male tiger still live but it's ensared paw badly injured. Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Park officers released the tiger under sedation and took it to the Malacca Zoo for treatment and recovery.The snare was set by poachers on a forested ridge not far from a highway that cuts through the Belum Temengor forest, a priority habitat identified in the Malaysia's National Tiger Action Plan. But the forest is not systematically patrolled, and poachers find easy access from the nearby Malaysia-Thai border and the Gerik-Jeli highway. More than one hundred snares have been removed from the forest and ten poachers arrested in the last nine months. The estimate for remaining Malaysian tigers is 500 or less. The rescued individual demonstrates the need for strict law enforcement in areas where poaching is rampant. With human patrols to protect it, the Malaysian tiger has a fighting chance to survive in the wild. US Person contributes to WWF because it funds patrols like the one that rescued the male tiger caught in man's devilish device. Do You?
[photo credit: WWF]