Vietnamese Police Find Five Frozen Tigers in Man’s Freezer

Police in Vietnam have stumbled upon five frozen and disemboweled tigers from a man’s freezer in the province of Nghe An on Tuesday.

Tiger organs and bones are used for traditional medicine in Vietnam, where burgeoning local markets illegally sell animal parts, including ivory, rhino horn and exotic species like pangolins, according to ChannelNewsAsia.

These creatures are also shipped to neighboring Asian countries such as China.

“The authorities found inside a freezer five dead tigers, with the skins intact but the internal organs removed,” the official newspaper of Nghe An reported.

The tigers in the freezer were allegedly Indochinese and weighed between 220 pounds to 330 pounds each without internal organs, according to Sky News.

Police said an investigation into the gruesome discovery is ongoing.

“If we collect enough evidence, we will take criminal proceedings against the violator,” said Tran Minh Son, deputy head of the Nghe An Provincial Police Department for the Environment.

In Vietnam, tiger bones are usually boiled down and combined with rice wine, which is believed to help with healing arthritis and give strength to the drinker.

Tiger paste is also used to treat other ailments such as headaches.

One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of tiger bone paste can be sold for up to $5,000 on the black market.

The country has refuted accusations from conservation groups that it has one of the worst records in the world for preventing the illegal trade of endangered wildlife parts.

Back in May, Vietnamese police arrested a man who was suspected of trying to sell four frozen tiger cubs that he posted on Facebook.

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