How genuine is tiger bone glue?
Professor Pham Trong Anh, President of Vietnam’s Animal Association, is a regular guest of the Environmental Police (EP) Department whenever cases of wildlife smuggling, trade or tiger bone glue making operations are exposed. Professor Anh wants to warn consumers who buy tiger bone glue with the hope of curing medical problems that they are probably being deceived and wasting their money. Professor Anh said: “I have tested hundreds of samples of tiger bone glue and more than 70% of the samples were not genuine”. In January 2009, the EP discovered a tiger bone glue making operation in a Hanoi suburb. Professor Anh tested a sample and confirmed that it was leopard bone and not tiger bone being used to make the glue. Tigers are more expensive than leopards on the black market so traders often pump a leopard’s body full with a mixture of water and agar to make it bigger and heavier. A leopard weighing 40kg can tip the scales anywhere between 80-90kgs after being pumped full of the substanc
