NEW YORK has pipped Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries in carrying out illegal trade in tiger parts. A major undercover survey of Chinese supermarkets and pharmacies by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has revealed that more than 80 per cent of stores sold products claiming to contain tiger bone.

In recent years, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan have been the targets of international criticism for continuing to use tiger parts in medicine. "It is outrageous that tiger products banned all over the world can be so easily purchased in New York," said Dave Curry, director and chief investigator of the EIA. The survey is part of the US campaign launched by the EIA to Save the Indian tiger.