01:04Russia: See inside restaurant 'selling illegal Amur TIGER and LEOPARD meat'
Russia's Investigative Committee detained a Vietnamese national on suspicion of involvement in the killing and trafficking of endangered animals in Moscow, Wednesday. The suspect was arrested at a Moscow restaurant where he was employed. He is accused of supplying the eateries with illegal meat.
Officers discovered big-cat skins, heads and around 50 kg (110 lb) of meat believed to be the remains of an Amur (Siberian) tiger and an Amur (Far Eastern) leopard. The remains that were seized have been sent away for scientific analysis.
Investigators are working on the assumption that the animals were hunted and killed to facilitate the restaurant offering exotic and lucrative dishes. It is also possible that the remains not used in cooking could be sold on for high sums to the traditional Asian medicine market. The Committee estimates that one kilogram of tiger meat can fetch around 100,000 roubles (€1,278/US$1,455), heads are estimated to be valued at 250,000 roubles (€3,197/US$3,621), while the tiger skin is estimated to be worth around 700,000 roubles (€8,933, US$10,152).
The Amur leopard is considered to be critically endangered while the Amur tiger has the endangered status according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
01:04Russia's Investigative Committee detained a Vietnamese national on suspicion of involvement in the killing and trafficking of endangered animals in Moscow, Wednesday. The suspect was arrested at a Moscow restaurant where he was employed. He is accused of supplying the eateries with illegal meat.
Officers discovered big-cat skins, heads and around 50 kg (110 lb) of meat believed to be the remains of an Amur (Siberian) tiger and an Amur (Far Eastern) leopard. The remains that were seized have been sent away for scientific analysis.
Investigators are working on the assumption that the animals were hunted and killed to facilitate the restaurant offering exotic and lucrative dishes. It is also possible that the remains not used in cooking could be sold on for high sums to the traditional Asian medicine market. The Committee estimates that one kilogram of tiger meat can fetch around 100,000 roubles (€1,278/US$1,455), heads are estimated to be valued at 250,000 roubles (€3,197/US$3,621), while the tiger skin is estimated to be worth around 700,000 roubles (€8,933, US$10,152).
The Amur leopard is considered to be critically endangered while the Amur tiger has the endangered status according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.