Tiger 'mauls to death' keeper at wildlife park in China accused of disturbing trade in tiger bone wine

A tiger reportedly mauled its keeper to death at a Chinese wildlife park which has previously been accused of involvement in a disturbing trade in tiger bone wine.

The 50-year-old man was attacked by the big cat while cleaning the tiger enclosure at the Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village in Guangxi Province, the Nanguo Morning Post reported. The animal is thought to have run into the cage after a colleague of the man stepped outside.

“It's true, one of our workers got mauled to death,” a female worker at Xiongsen, thought to be China’s largest tiger-breeding operation, told Pear Video.

The park claims to have more than 1,100 tigers from four different species “on the verge of extinction”, along with 600 black bears, more than 400 lions and many other rare animals, including leopards, monkeys and snakes

China Connection Tours, a leading tour operator said Xiongsen “combines scientific research, breeding, watching and entertainment”.

Visitors to the park can expect “exciting and horrifying games of a tiger catching a pig and a lion fighting a bull”, is says, along with “acrobatic performances of bears and monkeys riding a motor on wire”, which it described as “really amazing and awe-inspiring”.

However, the park has previously been accused of breeding of big cats so it can supply their bones for a highly profitable trade in tiger bone wine.

A 2016 investigation by the Daily Mail claimed malnourished tigers at Xiongsen were being taken to a factory in Pingnan after they died. There they have their skeletons steeped in vats of rice wine for up to eight years.

The resultant liquid is bottled and sold for up to £800 a litre, the investigation alleged.

The wine, which is reportedly brewed in a huge underground factory 200 miles away, is said by some to serve as an elixir that helps to treat rheumatism and impotence.

China’s expanding middle class and the rise of online shopping has seen the wine’s popularity skyrocket over the past decade.

Breeding tigers for their body parts in banned under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species, but Beijing has granted an exemption breeders of captive tigers.

Animal conservationists argue the captive trade is encouraging wild tiger poaching across Asia, since it is cheaper to kill wild animals and smuggle them across borders than raise captive-bred ones.

When the newspaper visited the park in 2016, it reported witnessing “wretched, bored and neglected-looking tigers”, some of whom appeared “painfully thin”.

“There are so many of them here now it's hard to feed them all and there isn't enough food to go around,” a guard is reported to have said.

A 2015 report by The Washington Post alleged the park itself was selling tiger bone wine in tiger-shaped bottles, listing as a main ingredient the bones of "precious animals".

Damning reports about "tiger farms" from organisations such as the Environmental Investigation Agency have triggered waves of international uproar about the practice.

Grace Ge Gabriel, regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, recalled a visit to Xiongsen in 1999.

“There were many Chinese tourists in the stand watching when the cow was released into the enclosure, then five or six hungry tigers were let in,” she said. “The tigers couldn’t take down the cow. They were climbing on it, tearing at it and injuring it, but not in the critical areas. So the tigers were taken out, then a tractor came in and ran over the cow again and again and again.”