Dead tiger cubs found in fridge at Chinese zoo.

[and-justice-for-all]

Sick fucking bastards!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071225/ts_afp/chinawildlifeconservationanimaltiger

BEIJING (AFP) - Two tiger cubs have been found dead in a fridge at the same zoo in central China where a rare Siberian tiger was illegally slaughtered, state press reported Tuesday.

Zoo keepers at the Three Gorges Forest Wild Animal World claimed the cubs had died at birth, and they were placed in the fridge of the venue's ticket office for preservation, Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.

The cubs, from a Bengal tiger, were allegedly stillborn in late November but were not discovered by authorities until they began investigating the death of a six-year-old female Siberian tiger there a few days ago, Xinhua said.

The Siberian tiger had been skinned, and its head and legs had been cut off, Xinhua said in a report on the weekend.

"This was cruel and professional slaughter," Xinhua quoted an official as saying about the death of the adult tiger.

In Tuesday's report, an employee at the zoo, in Hubei province, said the venue was attracting only 20 visitors a day and losing money, raising speculation the tigers may have been intended to have been sold off.

Tigers attract huge sums of money in China and elsewhere in Asia, with their body parts used for traditional medicinal and aphrodisiac purposes.

Siberian tigers, among the world's most endangered animals, mostly live in northeast China and the Russian Far East.

Of the 400 estimated left remaining in the wild, only 10 to 17 live in China, according to Xinhua