Conservationst group WWF has called on the government to ban the sale of products claiming to contain body parts of endangered animals, especially tigers, it said in a statement today.

WWF Malaysia's head of Species Conservation, Dionysius Sharma, said he was concerned that traditional Chinese medicines claiming to contain the healing properties of endangered animals' body parts, would eventually push the tigers to extinction.

"Presently there are many products claiming to have tiger parts in them. It is very difficult for the authorities to ascertain for a fact," he said, urging for a total ban on the sale of any products bearing such claims.

Sharma said processed tiger bone medicines of Chinese and Southeast Asian origin were still relatively widely available in the country.

"Being one of the few countries where tigers occur naturally, Malaysia has a moral obligation and responsibiity to ensure that we do not contribute to the killing of tigers and the use of their parts in traditional Chinese medicine," he said.

The group on Thursday launched a campaign urging Malaysians to boycott meat from wildlife, saying that tigers in Malaysia were more likely to be eaten by people than the other way around.

Tiger attacks

It's executive director Mikaail Kavanagh Abdullah had said that while much attention had recently been given to tiger attacks which killed three people in northern Kelantan state, the animals themselves were under greater threat.

"It is far more likely that a person will eat a tiger in this country than the other way around," he said, adding that restaurants in several parts of the country served wildlife meat including leopard, monkey and bear and while tigers were "rarities on most menus, they too end up in the cooking pot".

A 1997 survey carried out by the wildlife department estimated there were some 600-650 tigers left in peninsular Malaysia, down from 5,000 in the 1950s.

Tigers are a protected species in Malaysia and Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding has said that anyone killing tigers without a permit would be prosecuted.