Your report that tiger meat is on the menu in Johor restaurants is disturbing. It must enrage many Malaysians whose natural heritage is being eaten away by people with no conscience.

It shows the folly of those who still believe in the properties of tiger body parts for health or as an aphrodisiac when there is no scientific evidence to support the myth.

What is enraging is the blatant selfishness of those concerned. It is not as if they don't know that the tiger is a seriously endangered species or that killing one is illegal. They are thoughtless enemies of nature.

The endangered tiger at the top of the food chain performs an important function in the order of nature, as do other predatory animals such as American bears and white-pointer sharks.

For a few moments of pleasure, decadent tiger-eating monsters are prepared to extinguish the existence of many of our endangered species.

As a conscientious objector, I refuse to eat shark's fin soup even if I offend my dinner host because of the destructive way that the fins are harvested from sharks. It is time to ban the sale of shark's fin in restaurants as well as the sale of exotic wildlife.
If we diminish the supply side of the equation, then more sharks will be saved. I don't think any diner is going to die because Chinese restaurants no longer serve the tasteless fin. The number of sharks will soon be depleted at the rate the Chinese are eating their fins. We should boycott restaurants that sell shark fins.

If we demand that the Japanese and Icelanders stop eating whales then we should expect the Chinese and others to stop eating other endangered animals too.

The report said that it is hard to catch the tiger poachers and the tiger-eating diners because of a code of silence. This is understandable but the penalties must be increased manifold so that the message is sent out strongly to all the perpetrators including possibly colluding corrupt officials.

No one knows how many tigers exist in the wild because they are hard to track but a figure of between 500 and 600 has been bandied around for many years though without any reliable scientific data.

We should not condition ourselves to remain apathetic toward the tiger's plight. It may the last chance we have of saving the Malaysian tiger.

The irresponsible and selfish act of eating the endangered tiger is symptomatic of the arrogance and greed of a class of people who care for nothing but their own selfish interests and insatiable appetites, and think money buys everything.

That Singaporeans are involved exposes the depravity of such people whose government has given them every help in being responsible and civic-minded citizens. They should be thrown into a Malaysian jail to complete their obviously failed civic education.

If harsh penalties are imposed on the guilty, then huge rewards can be given to those who haul them in. The Orang Asli obviously also need to be re-educated. Of all people, they should know better than to be in cahoots with the culprits.

What good to nature is an Orang Asli who is supposed to be able to live in harmony with the wild but who betrays it and sells out nature's children including the tiger? In some countries poachers have been caught, re-educated and turned into wildlife rangers and protectors. We should consider the possibility of re-deploying the talents of the Orang Asli in a positive way.

It is time we take stock of our treatment of Mother Nature and her endangered species. The plight of the tiger is not a wildlife problem but a societal one. It is urgent that we act before all is lost.

If we don't inculcate a strong sense of conservation among the people, starting from young schoolchildren, then here is little hope for nature and no tiger will be seen in the zoos after the last one dies.

Who then do we blame then?