So let me get this right. A zoo starves 13 Siberians, which attracts international outrage and accusations of tiger harvesting. China loses a ton of face on their already sketchy animal conservation stance. So the solution is to pay off the zoo?
China investigating zoo over dead tigers
(AFP) – 14 hours ago

BEIJING — Authorities are investigating a Chinese zoo where three dozen animals including 13 rare Siberian tigers died recently, amid charges it was harvesting their parts, state media said Monday.

The probe of the zoo in the northeastern city of Shenyang will look at whether the animal parts were being used as ingredients in Chinese medicine and other products, Xinhua news agency said.

China banned the international trade in tiger bones and related products in 1993, and is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which also bars such trade.

But such transactions exist as many tiger parts, such as *****es and bones, are commonly believed to increase sexual potency or cure certain illnesses.

Xinhua quoted a manager at the Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo as saying that the carcasses of the dead tigers, 11 of which starved to death and two of which were shot after mauling a worker, have been cut up and put in cold storage.

But another unnamed zoo worker said the bones had been used to make tiger-bone liquor that was used to "serve important guests".

The deaths, which came to light as China celebrates the Lunar Year of the Tiger, have been blamed on a combination of inadequate funding, an unusually cold winter and poor general conditions at the facility, the China Daily said.

Zoo workers fed the tigers cheap chicken bones in recent months as funding dried up. On Sunday, the Shenyang government announced that it had allocated one million dollars to save surviving animals and fund the zoo.

Besides the tigers, 22 other animals have died, including rare species that are protected in China, among them a red-crowned crane, four stump-tailed macaques, and one brown bear.

The Shenyang government has a 15 percent share in the zoo, which is mainly privately owned.

China says it has nearly 6,000 tigers in captivity, but just 50 to 60 are left in the wild, including about 20 wild Siberian tigers.

In the 1980s, China set up tiger farms to try to preserve the big cats, intending to release some into the wild. But conservation groups say the farms are used to harvest ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine.
Source: Zoo starved tigers to ransom govt
By Zuo Likun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-15 13:38

Eleven Siberian tigers that died at a strike-plagued private zoo were “intentionally starved to hold the government to ransom,” a source told the Nanfang Daily.

Initial disbelief stirred up into public outrage after media reports over the weekend revealed that eleven Siberian tigers have been starved to death in the past three months at the private-holding Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo in northeast China.

The zoo was forced to close last November after two tigers were shot dead in an accident and has been plagued by strikes over back pay. The anonymous insider said the zoo staff’s salaries had been delayed for 18 months.

The zoo’s annual revenue, largely from ticket fees during the six-month peak seasons, averages about 12 to 20 million yuan ($1.8 to 2.9 million). That sum, coupled with a government subsidy of 2 million yuan ($293,000) each year, couldn’t have left the zoo in red, the source said.

“It can’t go so far as to delayed payments and animal starvation. Now a few tigers are starved, which is simply a hijack to ransom the government for the zoo’s debts,” said the source.

The problem was echoed by the zoo’s deputy Party secretary Wu Xi.

“The feedstuff generally costs about 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) a year. But the boss uses the revenues to pay debts and salaries, and the money actually spent on the wild animals was less than 8 million yuan ($1.2 million),” Wu said.

The zoo’s boss Yang Zhenhua showed up on Sunday at the company’s dining hall for a ten-minute staff meeting, assuring employees’payments and pleading the workers go back to their jobs.

So far, a probe into the tiger deaths is underway, while animal experts have been called in to ensure the remaining animals’health. The Shenyang municipal government has allocated 7 million yuan ($1.02 million) for the rescue work, two million of which will be used to resume the zoo’s operation.