VietNamNet Bridge - Eleven tigers are kept on a family farm in Xuan Tin Commune of Tho Xuan District in Thanh Hoa Province, just several hundred meters from the residential quarter.

Nguyen Mau Chien, of Xuan Tin Commune, has been raising tigers on a 1 hectare plot of land since 2006.

Even though Chien raised the tigers, they are not tame and some have attempted to attack strangers who get near their cages.

In 2007, Thanh Hoa Province People's Committee fined Chien VND30 million ($1,400) for illegally keeping tigers. In 2008, Chien's brother-in-law was fined VND30 million for keeping five tigers. However, in 2012, Chien was granted permission to keep them.

The Tho Lam Ranger Unit said they did not know why Chien is keeping the animals, and that it is difficult for them to keep track of tigers in captivity. The Association for the Protection of Wildlife requested to take the animals, but Chien has not agreed to an amount for compensation.

Each month, Tho Xuan district rangers check the farm.  

The tigers eat mostly chicken heads. Every month, 11 tigers eat about 1.5 tons of food.

It is costly to raise the tigers but local authorities and rangers do not know why Chien raised the tigers.

In 2012, Le Xuan Canh, director of Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, said there are fewer than 50 wild tigers in Vietnam, compared to about 100 ten years ago. A project for monitoring tigers in Vietnam, run by the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, discovered that there are 76 tigers in captivity.

Some pictures of Chien’s tiger farm, the largest in Vietnam:

Photo: Nguoi Lao Dong