The story centres on the work of an American environmentalist and founder of the charity WildAid, who has put his own money into creating a special tiger unit within the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. Members of the unit, which is now largely funded by international wildlife charities, patrol with guns and carry the rank of state inspector. Tiger numbers are said to have stabilised since patrols began but there are still only a few hundred tigers left.

The film reports that near the Russian-Chinese border "corruption is rife" with politicians and security forces either buying tiger products or taking bribes. In Thailand, there is reportedly "apathy and indifference" to conservation efforts with lenient sentencing of poachers providing no deterrent. Tiger parts and leopard skins are openly on sale in Myanmar markets.

It would be wrong to think, however, that the hunting of big cats is done exclusively to make money for Russian poachers and far eastern medicine traders. In January of this year, and on another continent, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki refused to endorse a Wildlife Conservation Bill going through parliament which was backed by foreign interests aiming to get Kenyan wildlife opened up for sport hunting, especially the big game.

The East African newspaper reports that “At the centre of the campaign was Safari Club International (SCI), an elitist hunting club with deep roots in the United States government and Congress. The US government may also have rendered financial support to local pro-hunting groups through the United States Agency for International Development (USAid). Besides funding a trip by 23 Kenyan officials to countries in Southern Africa, SCI had been working together with an affiliate group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) on a proposed pilot hunting project in Samburu.”

SCI has 46,000 members, including former US president George Bush Snr, former vice president Dan Quayle, Norman Schwarzkopf, head of Nato forces during the 1990 Gulf war and more than 20 current members of the US Congress. Bush, Schwarzkopf and Quayle put their names to a campaign in 2001 urging the Botswana government to get rid of its ban on lion hunting. Safari Club International has reportedly contributed nearly $600,000 to US Republican candidates and about $92,000 to Democrats since 1998.

While Kenya has enforced a ban, South Africa continues to allow ‘canned hunting’ where animals, according to an article in the Big Issue Scotland, “are shot in pens of a few acres or smaller, in which they were raised. Some are shot while partially sedated; others are killed near feeding troughs and breeding pens. Thus, shooting preserves can advertise a policy of ‘No Kill, No Pay’. As one hunter famously commented, ‘Before being harvested, African lions, raised as pets, would amble over and lick your hand.’ Many of the animals, used in this way, which haven't been specifically reared to be shot, started out as exhibits at zoos.”

Research has shown that half of the foreign hunters who go to South Africa to are North Americans with German and Spanish tourists accounting for the next greatest numbers. Some Britons also take part. Most come from “professional, management and industrial fields of above average to very high incomes.” It can therefore be safely assumed that most participants are white men.

Environmentalist Gareth Patterson describes the business as an insult to African culture: "Traditionally in Africa animals were not killed for sport. This is a
western notion that has been imposed on Africa."

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 http://www.bloodybusiness.com/news/trophy_hunting/press_articles/wildlife_bill_kibaki_rejected_had_high_level_us_support.htm

 http://www.wag.co.za/Canned%20lion/Shooting%20Gallery.htm

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/4305239.stm