South African tiger farms illegally smuggling body parts, says charity

Several facilities were breeding tigers to sell their body parts to China or Vietnam for use in traditional medicine, the report said. Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy

The largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger body parts, according to a report by an animal welfare charity.

Research by Four Paws, which is campaigning to shut down South Africa’s big cat industry, found 103 places in the country where tigers were kept in captivity in 2023 or 2024 or had been kept during the previous three years.