VietNamNet Bridge – A family in Xuan Tin Commune of Tho Xuan District in Thanh Hoa Province has been keeping 11 tigers at its farm, just several hundred meters from the residential quarter.

The owner of the biggest tiger farm in the north is Nguyen Mau Chien, who works in Hanoi. He began the illegal breeding of tigers in 2006. However, in late 2012, Chien got a license from the Thanh Hoa provincial Forest Ranger Unit to breed tigers.

The tiger farm is located on a sandbank, just 300 meters from Hamlet No 17 of Xuan Tin Commune. This is a one-hectare farm, surrounded by a wall with steel plates, about five meters high.

According to Tu, Chien, the owner of the farm, bought the tigers from those who caught the tigers in Laos. At that time, Chien bought 15 or 16 tigers. However, two died in 2008, and three more died in 2010 and 2012.

The tigers’ mainly eat chicken heads, collected by Chien from slaughtering workshops in Hanoi in the north and carried to Thanh Hoa Province in the central region. About 1.5 tons of food are consumed by the tigers every month.

The tigers have been affecting the lives of local residents. “We cannot sleep well,” a local man said. “We usually are startled at midnight at the growling of the tigers.”

“In the past, the tigers were kept in the middle of the hamlet, which was a high risk and caused serious environment pollution,” he said. “The tiger farm has been relocated to another place, but risks still exist.”

The tigers, which live near crowded residential quarters, have caused problems for the local authorities.

“The farm is just 300 meters from Cau Chay embankment. If the embankment breaks and the water floods in, it is highly possible that the tigers will try to escape,” said Trinh Dinh Duc, chair of Xuan Tin Commune.

According to Ha Duy Thuy, deputy head of the Tho Xuan district, Chien got a license to breed tigers in 2012, which is valid for five years (2012-2017). Chien has been asked not to kill, trade, or carry the tigers away, and use necessary measures to ensure safety for local residents.

“We sent our staff to the site to check the number of tigers on the farm every month. We also examined the environment and farming safety conditions,” Thuy said.

However, what worries Thuy is that the forest rangers unit cannot be sure if Thuy replaced the tigers in the farm with others. “We doubt that Thuy carried some tigers away for trade, but we cannot find evidence,” he said.

Kim Chi