Tigers in the wild

Campaigner who fought for Gurkhas and set up Fair Fuel UK turns his sights on helping big cats

He’s helped Gurkha’s settle in the UK, put pressure on the Government to stall price hikes for petrol, and now campaigner Peter Carroll has turned his sights on to the plight of the tiger.

So now haulage operator Mr Carroll, from Folkestone, will be spearheading a push to get “battery farm” tiger farms in China closed down after being approached by famous wildlife artist and conservationist David Shepherd.

Explains Mr Carroll: “People don’t realise there are these things called tiger farms. These places are like battery hen farms.

“There are rows of wire and concrete floors. Tigers are forced to breed quicker than they would in the wild and the cubs are taken away from their mother at a young age. It is a horrid and revolting situation.”

They are then killed to fuel the demand for a host of tiger-related products.

Mr Carroll added: “The farms stimulate the demand for skins and ridiculous products like tiger wine that is made up from the animal’s crushed bones. The poachers see the demand and then just shoot a tiger in the wild because they don’t want to bother to farm them. A cost of a bullet compared to a tiger farm is nothing.”

Explaining his involvement in the foundation, he said: “The campaign is part of the work carried out by David Shepherd’s wildlife foundation. He had seen what I had done for the Gurkhas and asked if I would be able to do the same for the tiger.

“He is 80 now but he said he wanted to think that everything that could be done to save the tiger would be done before he dies.”

Mr Carroll, who began the Gurkha Justice Campaign - famously recruiting Absolutely Fabulous actress Joanna Lumley as its high-profile figurehead, is now concentrating his efforts to get the farms closed for good.

The farms, say campaigners, endanger the few remaining animals left in the wild. Mr Carroll adds: “There are now thought to be less than 3,000. The demand for products produced from the big cats carcases means they are often shot by poachers.”

Mr Carroll, who runs a haulage business, also began Fair Fuel UK to lobby for lower fuel pump prices.

He has brought in many well known names to help raise awareness of tiger farms, including Ms Lumley, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry and model Sam Fox.

China’s Premier Wen Jaibao has said the country will back policies to save the wild tiger but the country tolerates a trade in products produced by tigers bred in captivity.

Mr Carroll said: “We believe the biggest farm may have as many as a couple of thousand in it but it is very hard to get information about what is going on there.

“China has said they will allow a licensed trade in skins from tigers as long as they are not wild. The trouble is they are not open there is no information about how that registration scheme might work. It is an awful scheme anyway. No one should be trading in tiger products. It keeps the trade going and it is a smoke screen for the poaching of wild tigers.”

To find out more and sign up for the campaign visit http://www.tigertime.info