"Singapore - A local animal protection group said on Friday that some jewelery shops in Singapore were illegally selling tiger parts, helping fuel the disappearance of the big cat from Asia.
A three-month investigation by Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) found that 59 out of 134 jewelery and antique shops it visited in the south-east Asian city-state were allegedly selling tiger parts, including claws, teeth and pieces of skin.
Acres said all commercial tiger trade had been banned by the international Cites convention that Singapore had signed, and under domestic law the sale of tiger specimens was prohibited, even if the products turned out not to be real.
It said shopkeepers had told it that demand had been higher over Lunar New Year - the start of the Year of the Tiger - and that more orders could be placed for parts, which could take from a week to three months to be delivered.
The shopkeepers said the parts came from south-east Asia, China and south Asia.
Tiger parts are used to make jewelery and Chinese medicine.
Conservationists say tigers in the Greater Mekong region face extinction.
Global tiger populations are at an all-time low of 3 200, down from about 100 000 a century ago, as forest habitats disappear and the animals are killed for their body parts.
Asian countries are a hot spot for the illegal wildlife trade, which the international police organization Interpol estimates may be worth more than $20 billion (R150bn) a year.
'As long as there is demand, there will be supply,' said Singapore member of parliament Lim Wee Kiak.
'Legislation alone is insufficient to bring a complete halt to the illegal trading."
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