Chinese businessman jailed for 13 years after eating tigers

Police seized eight pieces of animal meat and bones from a refrigerator in Xu’s home, some of which were later identified as tiger parts, including a penis, the government-run news portal gxnews.com.cn reported on Tuesday, adding that 16 geckos and a cobra were also found.

Powered by automated translation

BEIJING // A Chinese businessman who bought and ate three tigers has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The wealthy real estate developer, identified only by his surname Xu, has “a special hobby of grilling tiger bones, boning tiger paws, storing tiger penis, eating tiger meat and drinking tiger blood alcohol,” state news agency Xinhua said in June when he went on trial.

Xu organised three separate trips last year for a total of 15 people, including himself, to Leizhou in the southern province of Guangdong, where they bought tigers for a “huge amount of money” that were killed and dismembered as they watched, the government-run news portal gxnews.com.cn reported on Tuesday.

Police seized eight pieces of animal meat and bones from a refrigerator in Xu’s home, some of which were later identified as tiger parts, including a penis, the report said, adding that 16 geckos and a cobra were also found.

A court in Guangxi earlier this year convicted the 15 of “illegally transporting precious and endangered wild animal products” but the conviction was not reported at the time.

Xu was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a fine of 1.55 million yuan (Dh917,000), gxnews.com.cn said, with the others jailed for terms between five and six and a half years, and given smaller fines.

They appealed and a higher court upheld the ruling on Monday, the website said.

*Agence France-Presse