Sight for Soaring Eyes
We finally reached the rebel-controlled town of Mong La, on the Myanmar/Chinese border after 6 hours on the road from Thailand. MONG LA, once was described as the "Las Vegas in the jungle" with its casinos, brothels and wildlife markets back in 2005.
Now it is fast becoming a ghost town, the casinos are still here, the girls still stand on the street corners looking for their next customer and exotic wildlife is still being eaten, but the traffic from the Chinese side of the border seems restricted, maybe something to do with the Olympics games, as if everything is on hold.
After a night in Mong La we started to talk to the locals about the wildlife trade within the area, they told us about a bear bile farm of about 50 Asiatic Black bears and quickly reported it to Animals Asia Foundation in Hong Kong, who are working with governments in Asia to try to stop this horrendous practice.
In the local fruit and vegetable market wild animal traders were selling everything from bear paws to chunks of elephant hide all openly on display. In front of restaurants birds of prey, awaited their fate, eagles, owls and falcons sit in depressing cages. Their eyes are gorged out before being killed, according to one restaurateur, it improves your eye site.
You have to wonder what we'll say to our children, and their children, when they learn about the beautiful, rich and varied life on earth that we were privileged to know? See link: http://www.wildlife1.org/
Paul Hilton: Hong Kong conservation photographer