China Zoo Blamed in Death of 11 Siberian tigers

----some zoos are so impoverished their workers don't get paid

BEIJING--Eleven rare Siberian tigers have died at a wildlife park in a startling case that activities say hints at unsavory practices among some zoos and animal farms in China:They are over-breeding endangered animals in the hopes of making illicit profit on their carcasses.

The death of the tigers occurred in the past three months at the zoo in China's frigid northeast, officials and state media said Friday. Reports said the tigers straved to death, having been fed nothing but chicken bones, while a zoo manager said unspecified diseases killed the animals.

Either way, the animals had been ill-kept and ill-fed. The Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo has struggled financially, even withholding pay from staff, said a woman in charge of corporate planning for the zoo who would only give her surname, Wang. The zoo had been up for auction for some time without any bidders, she said.

"You can do the math: one tiger eats 10 kilograms (22pounds) of beef per day and there are at least 30 of them now, and there are lions, elephants and other animals too." Wang said. "The zoo has been taking money from the staffers' salary to feed the animals."

The tigers' food bill consumes nearly half of the local subsidies zoos receive.

Note: Some Chinese believe drink wine soaked with tiger bone make them stronger, it becomes a kind of fashion to drink tiger bone wine in Lunar Tiger year.

According to chinese official news CRI, other than tiger, there's another 26 animals died, including four African lion.