Investigators found the body of a tiger inside the house in Prague, next to a pot used to cook down parts of the animal. Photo / Czech Customs Authority
Investigators found the body of a tiger inside the house in Prague, next to a pot used to cook down parts of the animal. Photo / Czech Customs Authority
WARNING: Graphic and disturbing content
These gruesome pictures show the inside of an illegal tiger farm in the Czech Republic where big cats were butchered before being boiled down to be turned into stock cubes.
Inspectors found a freshly killed tiger and an unplugged freezer stuffed full of rotting remains when they raided the facility in the capital, Prague.
They found a large cooking pot filled with meat and bones while valuable pelts were also stashed in the house, the Daily Mail reports.
Investigators say tigers were being killed, chopped up and cooked down. Through surveillance, they found that tiger bones turned into stock cubes were worth up to £52 (NZ$98) per gram - the equivalent of £1,472 (NZ$2,769) per ounce.
Claws, meanwhile were said to be worth nearly £90 (NZ$170) each and pelts worth up to £3,500 (NZ$6,584).
According to the Guardian, officers who carried out the raid after a five-year probe, found demand for traditional medicine containing tiger products was driven in part by the Vietnamese population.
Gruesome pictures show the inside of the illegal tiger farm. Photo / Czech Customs
Some of that demand came from within a Czech-Vietnamese community which emerged when workers arrived from the South East Asian country during Czechoslovakia's communist era.
At the time of the raid this summer, Robert Šlachta from the Customs Directorate, said: "The tiger we discovered was shot in the eye and in the neck, so that the skin would stay intact and could be sold on the black market.
"According to our information, the cooking of the tiger meat took five to 12 days and all parts of the animal, including the pelts, teeth or claws, were intended for commercial purposes."
Investigators say they picked up the trail of evidence in 2013 when tiger bones were discovered in a Vietnamese man's vehicle having received them from a breeding unit in Slovakia.
Further products were found to have come from the Czech Republic and the trail eventually led to a member of a circus family known to breed tigers and lions.
Investigators say he was taking them to a taxidermist who, together with another suspect, would cut up and cook the tigers at his property.
Surveillance operations then revealed the amount of money the gang stood to make from selling the processed animals.
Investigators say tigers were being killed, chopped and cooked down. Photo / Czech Customs
Three men have been charged with offences relating to the illegal killing and trade of protected species, the Guardian reports.
According to Radio Prague, Erik Geuss, from the Czech Environmental Inspectorate, said illegal trade in tigers had become a growing problem in the country.
"In recent years, we have observed an increase in the illegal export of tigers and other felines from the Czech Republic.
"This is because there is quite a large Asian community living in the Czech Republic and there is a substantial demand for tiger products in that region.
