UPDATED ON:
Friday, February 01, 2008
08:47 Mecca time, 05:47 GMT
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News Asia-Pacific
Rare Sumatran tiger shot by soldier
Sumatran tigers are the rarest subspecies of
tiger in the world [GALLO/GETTY]
An Indonesian soldier has shot and skinned an endangered wild Sumatran tiger – one of fewer than 400 thought to survive in the wild – a conservation group has said.
 
The soldier reportedly killed the tiger after it became trapped in a pig snare close to a village in Riau province in the east of Sumatra island.
Local residents had asked the soldier to help free the animal, Bastoni, an official with the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program, told the Associated Press.
 
"Instead, the soldier fired nine bullets to its body and head, and then asked villagers to skin the wild beast," he said.
The soldier then distributed the meat to villagers before taking the tiger's pelt home with him.

"It was sadistic," said Bastoni, adding that his organisation intends to file a complaint with the Indonesian army.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) the Sumatran tiger is the most critically endangered tiger subspecies in the world and the only one to survive in the wild in Indonesia.

The WWF says that while legislation exists to help protect the Sumatran tiger, unless those laws are enforced accelerating rates of deforestation and rampant poaching mean the animals' future is bleak.
 Source: Agencies
 
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