• Five poachers were sentenced to five years in prison for tigress and her cub.
• And skinning and burning their remains to sell on the black market.
• Photos taken nearby also revealed bones and cadaver fragments.

Five poachers were each given five years in prison by a court in western Thailand on Monday for killing a mother tiger and her cub in a national park the previous year.

The Kanchanaburi provincial court concluded that the five men violated conservation rules when they killed the protected animals in Thong Pha Phum National Park before skinning and burning their remains to make them ready for sale on the black market.

The tiger parts were taken by park authorities when they found them in January of last year.

Photos shot in the bush and released by authorities revealed the skins of two flayed tigers.

Photos taken nearby also revealed bones and cadaver fragments.

The men claimed they killed the tigers as retaliation for attacks on cattle, but the court dismissed their claim, saying they “should have felt protective of nature” given that they lived in a neighborhood next to a forest.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, there are just about 4,500 wild tigers left in the world (WWF). Despite their numbers have grown recently, according to WWF, less than 200 big cats are still present in Thailand’s national parks and wildlife refuges.

The desire for tigers’ bones, skins, and other body parts used in traditional medicine in China and Vietnam is one of the main factors driving poaching, one of the largest risks to tigers’ survival.

Traditional Chinese medicine has both supporters and detractors in China, where there is ongoing discussion about its efficacy and safety.

Despite the fact that many TCM medicines have been in use for hundreds of years, detractors contend that there is frequently no conclusive, peer-reviewed research to back up their claimed advantages.

Charoen Jaichon, the chief of Thong Pha Phum National Park, praised the court’s decision.

“I’m happy that justice has been delivered,” he told media on Tuesday. “This is a strong warning to any illegal hunters in Thailand’s national parks.”

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