Education for Nature-Vietnam has proposed to seize 11 tigers which are being kept at a farm in Thanh Hoa Province but local authorities have no idea where to transfer them.

Tigers at Nguyen Mau Chien's farm in Thanh Hoa Province

Last year, Hanoi police arrested Nguyen Mau Chien and accomplices who are members of a trans-boundary wildlife trafficking ring with 36 kilos of rhino horn, two frozen tiger cubs, and other wildlife products.

The authorities also found out about Chien's unlicensed tiger farm. Chien set up a farm with 12 tigers in 2006 but one had died and no new tiger has been added to the farm since.    

In 2007, Thanh Hoa Province People's Committee fined Chien for his illegal tiger farm but allowed him to continue running it. Five years later, the provincial forest ranger unit issued the licence for Chien's farm to breed and preserve the tigers. The license expired last year and this remains the only tiger farm in Thanh Hoa. 

On March 20 this year, Chien was given 13 months of imprisonment and his wife was imposed a suspended sentence of six months. He also admitted that two frozen tiger cubs were taken from the farm.

The Education for Nature-Vietnam asked the provincial authorities to seize the tigers as the farm was illegally set up in the first place and it didn't do anything to help protect tigers.

Thieu Van Luc, vice head of the provincial forest ranger unit, said they had contacted many conservation centres but none wanted to take the tigers because they can't give them suitable living conditions.

After a meeting with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam CITES Management Authority, the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and the Education for Nature-Vietnam, it is concluded that the authorities can't seize the tigers yet as there is no official conclusion from the investigators that the farm was directly involved in Chien's ring.

The authorities will not grant Chien's family a permit to set up a biodiversity conservation facility. 

Luc said, "We’re still monitoring and helping to raise the tigers at Chien's farm."

Dtinews