In the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) many methods are used to keep the body in balance. You can think of herbs, massages, acupuncture and nutrition, but most important their medicines. A lot of animals are poached for their substances that can be made into medicines. A lot of different animals are facing this problem every day, for example, tigers, swallow-nests, bears, elephants, rhinos, deers, turtles, snakes, monkeys, lizards, and a lot of other animals. But in this blog three of them are highlighted. Tigers are most of the time poached for their bones, rhinos for their horns and bears for their bile, although other parts of these animals are also used. The bones and horns are made into a powder which can be drank in tea. Bear bile can also be found in teas, but you can also drink it with wine.

In TCM it is believed that these substances have healing effect for a lot of different issues and disorders. It can also work as a tool to reduce pain. However, these medicines are very expensive, because it’s hard to get them. Even though a lot of animals are killed every year, there still is more demand than the supply, which causes high prices. Recently it is believed that these products are only bought by rich customers that want to show off their social status. Peoples motivation to buy this medicines is than the need for status.