Lawmaker quits after death of tiger cub
Print Edition
A Qingdao lawmaker has quit following the revelation he was illegally looking after three Siberian tigers, one of which fell to its death.
“It can’t be denied I am responsible for such a serious accident. It doesn’t match my status as a deputy to the Qingdao People’s Congress,” Yang Wenzheng, general manager of state-owned Dadu Grain Co Ltd, said in a letter of apology released yesterday.
Fewer than 500 Siberian tigers are believed to live in the wild. They are under state protection and keeping or breeding them without official permits is forbidden.
Xinhua news agency said the Pingdu Forestry Bureau had found Yang was keeping an adult female and two cubs in cages on the top floor of Guwu Mansion in Pingdu, a city administered by Qingdao.
Officials said one cub had escaped from its cage and fallen to its death after it was frightened by firecrackers at midnight on February 18, the lunar New Year’s Eve.
The other two tigers were sent to the Qingdao Forest Wildlife World on February 26, Xinhua said.
News website qingdaonews.com said Yang was fined 3,000 yuan (US$479), the maximum for raising wildlife without a permit.
Also fined was the Chashan Mountain Tourism Development Co Ltd, which had sent the tigers to Yang, it said.
In an interview with the Peninsula Urban Daily, Yang said he had signed an agreement to raise two tiger cubs last July and since then had kept them in iron cage on the 11th floor.
He made no mention of the adult female.
Li Peijie, deputy director of forestry authority in Pingdu, has been suspended from his post due to his negligence, the website reported, and Liu Yongtao, chief of Pingdu’s forest, animal and plant protection station, has been sacked.
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