AR-News: (UK) Butchered by the score ... for a shawl

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

The bloody - and deadly - trade that has brought a much-prized Tibetan 
antelope to the brink of extinction 

Yvonne Roberts in Dehli
Sunday March 21, 2004
The Observer 

A nervous salesman spreads out five shawls on the bed in a Delhi hotel. He 
thinks he is dealing with an affluent Dubai businessman and his American wife. 
In fact, the shawls are contraband and his 'customers' are a trustee of the 
Wildlife Trust of India and an Observer reporter. 
The salesman asks for a small fortune. These are shahtoosh - literally 
translated from Persian as 'king of woven cloth' - and they are fashioned from 
death. 
Trading in shahtoosh risks a lengthy jail sentence and a substantial fine. 
Men have been murdered in this trade and an entire species, the chiru, a Tibetan 
antelope, is threatened with extinction as each shawl requires the death of 
three to five animals. 
The shahtoosh resembles a deluxe pashmina, but feels very different. It is 
made from the chiru's undercoat of fine fur that protects it from the Himalayan 
winter of -40C. 




full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1174506,00.html 
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