"Special Economic Zone" Offers Rich Tourists Roasted Bear Cub, Tiger-Bone Wine

Exotic – and illegal – items from sautéed tiger meat to bear cubs are on offer at a resort in Laos, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.

The London-based Agency said in a report that the sprawling resort on a special economic zone that bridges Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand operates as a “lawless playground,” in large part, for and by Chinese nationals who have a taste for “wild flavor.”

In addition to menu items that included everything from python to pangolin, but also offered tiger bone wine. Drinkers of the traditional brew believe that it can do everything from enhance circulation to cure arthritis. One black market seller told the Daily Beast that consuming the stuff on a regular gave him the strength of a tiger and the senses of a predator.

Investigators found that the resort didn’t just sell tiger bone wine, but that the drink that was made in-house. The Agency found four tigers on site when it visited in mid-2014, but investigators found that it held 26 of them last month – and plans to keep as many as 500.

EDIT

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/03/19/3636435/laos-resort/