December 18, 1995, Mon.
Chinatown News
by Wendy Chow
Chinese environmentalist campaigning to change centuries-old tradition
Longtime environmentalist Anthony Marr is on a crusade with a dual goal. He hopes to put an end to the slaughter of endangered or threatened animals used in the preparation of Oriental medicine. By doing so, the Hong Kong raised Marr, 51, says he hopes to elevate the reputation of his fellow Chinese.
“Some people who call in to the Chinese radio talk shows say that I want to discredit Chinese culture. Quite on the contrary. We’ve been acquiring a bad reputation for years even though some Chinese people may not know it. When you get down to the root cause of poaching, it’s the demand by Chinese, Japanese and Korean people for the parts,” says Marr.
“When I was a kid I benefited a great deal from Chinese traditional medicine given to me by my grannies and my mom. I have a lot of reverence for Chinese medicine. But I do want to rid it of environmentally unsound and superstition-based ingredients.”
“I also want to act as a spokesperson to the Western community as a Chinese person,” says Marr. “In doing so, I show by deed that some Chinese people are willing to stand up and correct the wrongs in their native culture.” . . .
“The main consumers of these products at this point are the so called Little Dragons like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore. the Great Dragon, China, has not yet fully awakened as a consuming force. But in a decade or so, when a wealthy middle class arises, the demand from China will skyrocket, and poaching will reach astronomical proportions. If you think what’s happening right now is bad, wait and see. There is not much time to waste.” . . .
Perhaps because Marr is a Chinese person willing to speak out against what is a predominantly Chinese-caused problem, he has had plenty of media attention. He has brought local and national television cameras right into Chinatown, and been interviewed by newspapers and radio talk shows in both languages.
The public reaction to Marr’s campaign? One Maple Grove school teacher said, “I may not have been conscious of it, but for years I have been waiting for someone like Anthony to step forward.”
In 1996, Anthony Marr conducted "the highest profile animal advocacy campaign in Canada" (Globe and Mail), including an anti-hunting road tour throughout British Columbia covering 50 cities in 60 days, where he was confronted by up to 120 hunters at a time over 40 times, chased on highways and physically assaulted. This blog-series presents his field journal verbatim, and more.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
1955-12-06 "Anthony Marr says Chinese must help save endangered species"
December 6, 1995, Wed.
Ming Pao Daily News
by Eric Chan
(translated from Chinese)
Anthony Marr says Chinese must help save endangered species
Chinese Canadian environmentalist Anthony Marr has started a campaign to save endangered and threatened species from the Chinese animal parts consumers.
Marr’s BET’R (bear, elephant, tiger & rhino) campaign was started under his own steam in the summer of 1995. . . . He feels that Caucasian environmentalists cannot say what needs to be said to and about the Chinese community without being branded a racist. He believes that this, when dealt with by an environmentalist of Chinese extraction, would be the most effective.
Marr’s activities currently concentrates on public education. So far, he has received invitations from three Vancouver schools (Eric Hamber, Winston Churchill and Maple Grove) whose Chinese student populations range from 70% to 90%. To maximize public impact, these events will be covered by BCTV, CBC and UTV. . . .
In November, Marr met with directors Paul George and Joe Foy of the 25,000-members-strong Western Canada Wilderness Committee, which agreed to embrace the BET’R Campaign, with Marr being retained as BET’R Campaign Director. Among the first things WCWC will do for BET’R will be to publish 80,000-100,000 copies of a 4-page paper on bear conservation. . . .
Marr plans to tour the Chinatowns of North America, including Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, to propagate his conservation message. . . . If all go according to plan, he plans to go straight to Asia after 1997.
Marr was born near Canton, China, and brought up in Hong Kong. Since his arrival in Canada in 1965, he spent many summers working in the bush deep in the BC interior. It was then he bonded with wilderness and wildlife. He has been involved in BC’s environmental movement for almost two decades.
Ming Pao Daily News
by Eric Chan
(translated from Chinese)
Anthony Marr says Chinese must help save endangered species
Chinese Canadian environmentalist Anthony Marr has started a campaign to save endangered and threatened species from the Chinese animal parts consumers.
Marr’s BET’R (bear, elephant, tiger & rhino) campaign was started under his own steam in the summer of 1995. . . . He feels that Caucasian environmentalists cannot say what needs to be said to and about the Chinese community without being branded a racist. He believes that this, when dealt with by an environmentalist of Chinese extraction, would be the most effective.
Marr’s activities currently concentrates on public education. So far, he has received invitations from three Vancouver schools (Eric Hamber, Winston Churchill and Maple Grove) whose Chinese student populations range from 70% to 90%. To maximize public impact, these events will be covered by BCTV, CBC and UTV. . . .
In November, Marr met with directors Paul George and Joe Foy of the 25,000-members-strong Western Canada Wilderness Committee, which agreed to embrace the BET’R Campaign, with Marr being retained as BET’R Campaign Director. Among the first things WCWC will do for BET’R will be to publish 80,000-100,000 copies of a 4-page paper on bear conservation. . . .
Marr plans to tour the Chinatowns of North America, including Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, to propagate his conservation message. . . . If all go according to plan, he plans to go straight to Asia after 1997.
Marr was born near Canton, China, and brought up in Hong Kong. Since his arrival in Canada in 1965, he spent many summers working in the bush deep in the BC interior. It was then he bonded with wilderness and wildlife. He has been involved in BC’s environmental movement for almost two decades.
1995-12-02 "Animal Parts For Sale, And It's Legal"
December 2, 1995, Saturday
The Vancouver Sun, p. B2
by Nicholas Read
Animal parts for sale, and it’s legal
At Hang Hing Herbal Medicines at the corner of Pender and Gore, they openly sell medicinal products made of snake gall, tiger bone seal penis and bear bile. Some of the packages have a picture of a tiger on the front, and the snake, tiger, seal and bear ingredients are listed on the back.
However, on one set of the packages, which says “Tiger bone” in Chinese characters, an English message has been affixed. It says, “Excluding any part of tiger”.
It’s an obvious contradiction, but z store clerk confirms it. No, he says, there is no snake gall, tiger bone or bear bile in any of the products for sale, even though they are listed clearly on the packages.
Anthony Marr isn’t surprised. He says Vancouver’s Asian residents have become sensitive to criticism that medicines made from exotic, endangered animals, as well as local bears, are available in their pharmacies. So, it’s not surprising that they make such claims.
Marr, a longtime environmentalist, is of Chinese descent himself. He was born in China, brought up in Hong Kong, and moved to Vancouver when he was 21. So he is still fluent in Chinese, and can read easily all the package labels that English-only-speaking Canadians can’t.
Thus he finds in another pharmacy an arthritis medicine made of tiger bone. In the aphrodisiac case - labeled “fierce male” in Chinese - he finds packages containing three different kinds of animal penises - seal, bull and dog.
In another pharmacy, there are numerous kinds of deer antlers for sale, even antelope horns.
However, none of these products is illegal to sell, unless the bear bile is from a Canadian bear. Because even though it is against international law to import into Canada parts of animals as critically endangered as the tiger, once they have been smuggled in, there is no internal Canadian law to render them illegal to sell.
In 1992, Ottawa passed a law called the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA), which, if enacted, would make it illegal to sell tiger products. But after three years of bureaucratic wrangling, it’s still not law, which means selling tiger products is still okay.
At least legally. Ethically is another matter, says Marr, which is why he is launching a campaign to persuade Vancouver’s Chinese residents to shun the use of exotic animal parts, including tiger bone and bear gall, in traditional Chinese medicine.
With help from the conservation group, Bear Watch, he plans to place ads in local Chinese newspapers and on television stations advising Chinese Canadians about the environmental concerns other Canadians have about protecting endangered species.
It is not going to be easy. “The Chinese awareness is really not there,” Marr says. “Maybe the only person you saw in Chinatown today who knows or cares about the plight of the tiger was me.”
But education is the answer, he insists. Because even if the Canadian government were to enact WAPPRIITA and impose stiff fines for poaching and trafficking, as long as a demand exists, so will a supply.
Until, that is, the animals from which the parts come disappear. And with as few as 4,500 wild tigers left in the world, that become an increasingly real possibility all the time.
The Vancouver Sun, p. B2
by Nicholas Read
Animal parts for sale, and it’s legal
At Hang Hing Herbal Medicines at the corner of Pender and Gore, they openly sell medicinal products made of snake gall, tiger bone seal penis and bear bile. Some of the packages have a picture of a tiger on the front, and the snake, tiger, seal and bear ingredients are listed on the back.
However, on one set of the packages, which says “Tiger bone” in Chinese characters, an English message has been affixed. It says, “Excluding any part of tiger”.
It’s an obvious contradiction, but z store clerk confirms it. No, he says, there is no snake gall, tiger bone or bear bile in any of the products for sale, even though they are listed clearly on the packages.
Anthony Marr isn’t surprised. He says Vancouver’s Asian residents have become sensitive to criticism that medicines made from exotic, endangered animals, as well as local bears, are available in their pharmacies. So, it’s not surprising that they make such claims.
Marr, a longtime environmentalist, is of Chinese descent himself. He was born in China, brought up in Hong Kong, and moved to Vancouver when he was 21. So he is still fluent in Chinese, and can read easily all the package labels that English-only-speaking Canadians can’t.
Thus he finds in another pharmacy an arthritis medicine made of tiger bone. In the aphrodisiac case - labeled “fierce male” in Chinese - he finds packages containing three different kinds of animal penises - seal, bull and dog.
In another pharmacy, there are numerous kinds of deer antlers for sale, even antelope horns.
However, none of these products is illegal to sell, unless the bear bile is from a Canadian bear. Because even though it is against international law to import into Canada parts of animals as critically endangered as the tiger, once they have been smuggled in, there is no internal Canadian law to render them illegal to sell.
In 1992, Ottawa passed a law called the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA), which, if enacted, would make it illegal to sell tiger products. But after three years of bureaucratic wrangling, it’s still not law, which means selling tiger products is still okay.
At least legally. Ethically is another matter, says Marr, which is why he is launching a campaign to persuade Vancouver’s Chinese residents to shun the use of exotic animal parts, including tiger bone and bear gall, in traditional Chinese medicine.
With help from the conservation group, Bear Watch, he plans to place ads in local Chinese newspapers and on television stations advising Chinese Canadians about the environmental concerns other Canadians have about protecting endangered species.
It is not going to be easy. “The Chinese awareness is really not there,” Marr says. “Maybe the only person you saw in Chinatown today who knows or cares about the plight of the tiger was me.”
But education is the answer, he insists. Because even if the Canadian government were to enact WAPPRIITA and impose stiff fines for poaching and trafficking, as long as a demand exists, so will a supply.
Until, that is, the animals from which the parts come disappear. And with as few as 4,500 wild tigers left in the world, that become an increasingly real possibility all the time.
1995-11-22 Tree-Hugger
November 22, 1995, Wednesday
The Vancouver Courier
by Kerry Gold
Hong Kong environmentalist says many Chinese immigrants too urbanized to care about conservation
Kerrisdale tree wins temporary reprieve
China-born environmentalist Anthony Marr temporarily saved a tree in Kerrisdale from the chainsaw Monday.
It’s only the beginning of a campaign to help solve problems that are the result of a serious clash between cultures, he said.
“For the time being, the tree is safe, and I have notified residents,” Marr said after a protest that chased away tree fellers who’d begun to remove the lower boughs of a giant cedar.
When a few Kerrisdale residents realized another tree was about to come down Monday, they rushed to obstruct the fellers. Marr was notified by a protester friend, and within minutes he arrived at the site and joined in. He says he later talked in Chinese with the absentee property owner, who agreed to leave the tall cedar tree in the front yard of 6355 Vine St. temporarily standing.
“After talking to me for awhile, he promised not to cut down the tree for the time being, and will try to sell his property with the tree intact.”
However, if he moves into the house himself, he’ll probably cut the tree down, Marr added.
The temporary save isn’t enough for Kerrisdale residents so angry with the rash of tree-cutting in their neighbourhood they’ve formed a committee to deal with the problem. The 40-strong Tree Protection Committee is a part of the Kerrisdale Residents’ Association.
They are mostly long-time Kerrisdale residents fed up with the cutting of trees that are often generations old and irreplaceable. They say that they’re frustrated by city bylaws that don’t have the teeth to prevent destruction of the ecosystem and the natural beauty of the neighbourhood known for its profusion of towering trees. They also feel that the tree-cutting is motivated by profit, and is insensitive to the betterment of the community.
When the tree fellers arrived at the Vine street property, word spread like wildfire among the residents, and they quickly assembled into protest.
“We’re upset and we feel the legislation has to change,” said Irmela Topf, a 24-year Kerrisdale resident who moved to Vancouver Europe because of the scenery. “We neighbours want to keep our trees. This is what makes Vancouver so special.”
Scenes like the one on Vine Street have become commonplace the last few years. While new housing is on the rise to meet the needs of new Chinese immigrants, residents are growing increasingly angry over the removal of old-growth trees.
The private property tree bylaw requires any tree removed to be replaced (“by a twig”, a resident say) when the owner applies for a development permit. But residents say the bylaw is pointless, since it would take another 150 years to re-establish the beauty of that tree again.
“I have never seen this level of urban-tree cutting in any other province or city in the world,” said Barbra Johnston, who sat against the tree and refused to leave, causing the fellers to go away.
“We’re upset and we feel the legislation has to change. This city has to take a stand. We as private citizens can voice our feelings, but we have to have someone who will back us up.”
Enter Marr. He moved to Vancouver 30 years ago, delved into Canadian culture and developed a keen interest in wildlife. As a Hong Kong native, he believes he can act as a go-between for the two cultures.
He’s only recently begun his campaign to liaise between Canadian-born locals and Chinese immigrants. He calls his work to save endangered species the BET’R (pronounced “better”, for Bear, Elephant, Tiger & Rhino) Campaign. While his focus is mainly the illegal trade in bear parts, he says he’ll get involved in any environmental issue.
“I’m a Chinese person dealing with a Chinese-caused problem; that is the uniqueness of my program. Caucasian people find it daunting because of the possibility of alleged racism, so none of their campaigns hit the nail on the head hard enough to have it sink in. I’m volunteering myself as a Chinese activist for non-Chinese to voice the justified opinion.”
Marr is a writer with a physics degree. He’s been involved with the environmental movement since the 1970s, he says. He aims to spread environmental awareness to the Chinese community through school lectures and the media, because wildlife conservation is generally not a concern for most people from Hong Kong, he says.
“Generally, people from Hong Kong have been so concrete-jungle-conditioned that they don’t have the same kind of attachment to trees as Canadian people do. Wildlife awareness is not high among the community. Wild space is considered potential development sites, and basically the attitude is very anthropocentric. If a Hong Kong business person sees an opportunity to build a profitable golf course on a piece of marshland, they would do it without a second thought. And wild animals are still for utility, and wilderness is to be conquered. Sounds familiar?”
Marr confesses that before he came to Canada, he had the same way of thinking. “Unlike many immigrants from Asia, though, personal circumstances have led me to seek full integrated into Canadian society. I’ve acquired a lot of Canadian values, and I’ve come to appreciate wildlife and wilderness for their own sake, as many Canadians do.”
The Vancouver Courier
by Kerry Gold
Hong Kong environmentalist says many Chinese immigrants too urbanized to care about conservation
Kerrisdale tree wins temporary reprieve
China-born environmentalist Anthony Marr temporarily saved a tree in Kerrisdale from the chainsaw Monday.
It’s only the beginning of a campaign to help solve problems that are the result of a serious clash between cultures, he said.
“For the time being, the tree is safe, and I have notified residents,” Marr said after a protest that chased away tree fellers who’d begun to remove the lower boughs of a giant cedar.
When a few Kerrisdale residents realized another tree was about to come down Monday, they rushed to obstruct the fellers. Marr was notified by a protester friend, and within minutes he arrived at the site and joined in. He says he later talked in Chinese with the absentee property owner, who agreed to leave the tall cedar tree in the front yard of 6355 Vine St. temporarily standing.
“After talking to me for awhile, he promised not to cut down the tree for the time being, and will try to sell his property with the tree intact.”
However, if he moves into the house himself, he’ll probably cut the tree down, Marr added.
The temporary save isn’t enough for Kerrisdale residents so angry with the rash of tree-cutting in their neighbourhood they’ve formed a committee to deal with the problem. The 40-strong Tree Protection Committee is a part of the Kerrisdale Residents’ Association.
They are mostly long-time Kerrisdale residents fed up with the cutting of trees that are often generations old and irreplaceable. They say that they’re frustrated by city bylaws that don’t have the teeth to prevent destruction of the ecosystem and the natural beauty of the neighbourhood known for its profusion of towering trees. They also feel that the tree-cutting is motivated by profit, and is insensitive to the betterment of the community.
When the tree fellers arrived at the Vine street property, word spread like wildfire among the residents, and they quickly assembled into protest.
“We’re upset and we feel the legislation has to change,” said Irmela Topf, a 24-year Kerrisdale resident who moved to Vancouver Europe because of the scenery. “We neighbours want to keep our trees. This is what makes Vancouver so special.”
Scenes like the one on Vine Street have become commonplace the last few years. While new housing is on the rise to meet the needs of new Chinese immigrants, residents are growing increasingly angry over the removal of old-growth trees.
The private property tree bylaw requires any tree removed to be replaced (“by a twig”, a resident say) when the owner applies for a development permit. But residents say the bylaw is pointless, since it would take another 150 years to re-establish the beauty of that tree again.
“I have never seen this level of urban-tree cutting in any other province or city in the world,” said Barbra Johnston, who sat against the tree and refused to leave, causing the fellers to go away.
“We’re upset and we feel the legislation has to change. This city has to take a stand. We as private citizens can voice our feelings, but we have to have someone who will back us up.”
Enter Marr. He moved to Vancouver 30 years ago, delved into Canadian culture and developed a keen interest in wildlife. As a Hong Kong native, he believes he can act as a go-between for the two cultures.
He’s only recently begun his campaign to liaise between Canadian-born locals and Chinese immigrants. He calls his work to save endangered species the BET’R (pronounced “better”, for Bear, Elephant, Tiger & Rhino) Campaign. While his focus is mainly the illegal trade in bear parts, he says he’ll get involved in any environmental issue.
“I’m a Chinese person dealing with a Chinese-caused problem; that is the uniqueness of my program. Caucasian people find it daunting because of the possibility of alleged racism, so none of their campaigns hit the nail on the head hard enough to have it sink in. I’m volunteering myself as a Chinese activist for non-Chinese to voice the justified opinion.”
Marr is a writer with a physics degree. He’s been involved with the environmental movement since the 1970s, he says. He aims to spread environmental awareness to the Chinese community through school lectures and the media, because wildlife conservation is generally not a concern for most people from Hong Kong, he says.
“Generally, people from Hong Kong have been so concrete-jungle-conditioned that they don’t have the same kind of attachment to trees as Canadian people do. Wildlife awareness is not high among the community. Wild space is considered potential development sites, and basically the attitude is very anthropocentric. If a Hong Kong business person sees an opportunity to build a profitable golf course on a piece of marshland, they would do it without a second thought. And wild animals are still for utility, and wilderness is to be conquered. Sounds familiar?”
Marr confesses that before he came to Canada, he had the same way of thinking. “Unlike many immigrants from Asia, though, personal circumstances have led me to seek full integrated into Canadian society. I’ve acquired a lot of Canadian values, and I’ve come to appreciate wildlife and wilderness for their own sake, as many Canadians do.”
1995-11 "From Forest to Pharmacy"
November, 1995
From Forest to Pharmacy
published by
The Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of Canada
Humane Society International
written by
Peter Knights
Investigative Network
Washington, DC
The world’s bears face a life on the run in a shrinking world: their habitats are destroyed to make way for humans; they are killed as nuisance animals if they infringe on human territory; they are hunted down for trophies; and they are increasingly butchered for their meat and paws to supply the exotic meat trade, and for their gall bladders to supply traditional medicine - the same trade that devastated rhino populations for their horns and tiger populations for their bones. . . .
Of the world’s eight species of bears, only the Giant panda has not been targeted for its galls. galls from every other species have been found in trade. Tue world’s leading bear scientists view the gall trade as “a significant threat “ to the survival of the Asiatic Black bear, the Sloth bear and the Brown bear of Asia. Polar bear galls . . . Grizzly bear galls were found in trade by investigators in Canada and the USA . . .
With the lifting of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the former Soviet Union, once healthy Russian Brown bear populations are virtually defenseless against poaching. . . .
Destruction of Russian bears appears to be buying some time for North American bears, although poaching specifically for body parts is indeed increasing in Canada and the USA, according to wildlife enforcement officers. Just over half of the 40,000 bears hunted legally each year in North America are killed in Canada.
In 1994, US government officials (e.g. John Doggett, head of US Fish and Wildlife Service, proceedings of the International Symposium on the Trade in Bear Parts, 1994) estimate that for each bear killed legally, another bear is poached. Some experts (L. Slobodian, Edmonton Sun, 1994) even estimate that two or more are poached for each legal kill. In truth nobody knows, but the numbers of convictions, which represent a tiny proportion of the activity, suggest the poaching is widespread. . . .
The poachers are mainly Caucasian and, according to official intelligence, are often involved with other crimes such as drug smuggling and gun running. The illegal profits of wildlife poaching in Canada rank third after drugs/tobacco/liquor smuggling. . . .
It was estimated in 1991 by a federal wildlife trafficking expert that “at least 100 poachers are slaughtering more than 3,500 bears a year” in the Canadian province of British Columbia alone. . . .
From Forest to Pharmacy
published by
The Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of Canada
Humane Society International
written by
Peter Knights
Investigative Network
Washington, DC
The world’s bears face a life on the run in a shrinking world: their habitats are destroyed to make way for humans; they are killed as nuisance animals if they infringe on human territory; they are hunted down for trophies; and they are increasingly butchered for their meat and paws to supply the exotic meat trade, and for their gall bladders to supply traditional medicine - the same trade that devastated rhino populations for their horns and tiger populations for their bones. . . .
Of the world’s eight species of bears, only the Giant panda has not been targeted for its galls. galls from every other species have been found in trade. Tue world’s leading bear scientists view the gall trade as “a significant threat “ to the survival of the Asiatic Black bear, the Sloth bear and the Brown bear of Asia. Polar bear galls . . . Grizzly bear galls were found in trade by investigators in Canada and the USA . . .
With the lifting of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the former Soviet Union, once healthy Russian Brown bear populations are virtually defenseless against poaching. . . .
Destruction of Russian bears appears to be buying some time for North American bears, although poaching specifically for body parts is indeed increasing in Canada and the USA, according to wildlife enforcement officers. Just over half of the 40,000 bears hunted legally each year in North America are killed in Canada.
In 1994, US government officials (e.g. John Doggett, head of US Fish and Wildlife Service, proceedings of the International Symposium on the Trade in Bear Parts, 1994) estimate that for each bear killed legally, another bear is poached. Some experts (L. Slobodian, Edmonton Sun, 1994) even estimate that two or more are poached for each legal kill. In truth nobody knows, but the numbers of convictions, which represent a tiny proportion of the activity, suggest the poaching is widespread. . . .
The poachers are mainly Caucasian and, according to official intelligence, are often involved with other crimes such as drug smuggling and gun running. The illegal profits of wildlife poaching in Canada rank third after drugs/tobacco/liquor smuggling. . . .
It was estimated in 1991 by a federal wildlife trafficking expert that “at least 100 poachers are slaughtering more than 3,500 bears a year” in the Canadian province of British Columbia alone. . . .
1995-10 "Chinatown Undercover"
Chinatown Undercover
Chinatown Journal
October 1995
If the stereotyped Halloween witch were to stumble into where Anthony Marr now found himself, she would be like the proverbial kid-in-a-candy-store. In the glassed-in display shelves were trays upon trays and jars upon jars of dried this and that - all once alive, or parts of something once alive. There were dried mushrooms of different species, some as large as dinner plates. There were dried stems and roots and seeds and fruits, mostly brown or black, of medicinal plants unidentifiable to the casual eye. There were dried animals galore - sea cucumbers, sea horses, lizards, deer musk glands, seal penises, shark fins, swallows' nests, thin slices of antlers still in velvet. And these were just what were above the counter.
It was a store called Wei Hai on Pender street near Main, the one with the big yellow awning in front - one of about two dozen traditional Chinese pharmacies amidst the restaurants and groceries and curio shops and book stores of Vancouver's historical and bustling Chinatown.
Unsavory as some of the animal parts were, Anthony Marr's quarry lay deeper in the store. There was a section where the so-called Patent Tradition Chinese Medicines were displayed. These were highly packaged items, usually pills in bottles, and bottles in glossy and brightly coloured paper boxes.
Anthony moved slowly, with stops here and there, towards the back of the store, using his peripheral vision to monitor the three store clerks behind the counters. There was no other customer in the store, and this made him somewhat uncomfortable. As he pretended interest in a bank of trays containing different kinds and grades of gin seng, he glanced out of the store across the busy street, and saw the large beta-cam on a tripod aimed straight at him, and the giant of a bearded cameraman crouching behind it, and the blonde woman reporter standing beside it, all standing out like sore thumbs amidst the smaller, dark-haired people milling around them, looking curiously at them, then at me. Fortunately, up to this point, the three store clerks hadn't shown signs of having noticed the anomaly across the street.
“If you can hear me, raise your hand,” Anthony murmured into the conceal mike under his lapel, and saw the reporter do just that.
This would be the third time he showed his face on television, but the first time on national TV. This should be the one to make the difference on the federal government level. He glanced at the three store clerks to see if there was any sign of recognition or suspicion, but they seemed to just be going about their business, not that they had yet taken a close look at him, which they soon would.
Anthony moved deeper towards the back of the store and began scanning as nonchalantly as possible the multi-coloured paper boxes lined up row upon row, all bearing Chinese writings and pictorial designs. There were bear bile pills, crocodile bile pills, seal penis pills, dog penis pills, deer musk pills, rhino skin pills, pangolin pills, but he had no need to look much further to find what he was looking for. On one of the higher shelves sat a large collection of boxes, about ten assortments in total, all bearing different renditions of the same majestic animal, and all sporting the beautiful Chinese character in various calligraphic styles, pronounced in Mandarin as “hu”, and in Cantonese as “fu” - tiger.
He reached up and took down a few different boxes and began checking the ingredients lists printed on their backs. Most listed about a dozen ingredients each, all by their Latin and Chinese names, mostly medicinal plants that seemed to vary from brand to brand, but the one thing in common was in the list of contents, the Latin name “Ossis Tigris” - tiger bone. Its listed concentrations ranged from 6% to 24% from brand to brand. Price - $8 for the box with 6%, and $22 for the one listing 24%.
He was looking at the boxes, mostly green or amber, but what he saw was red. Over the years, he'd been watching TV wildlife documentaries by the score, often in Caucasian company. Whenever the subject matter was the tiger or rhino or elephant or bear, especially the tiger, the concluding messages were usually one and the same, that these magnificent beasts were going down due largely to the Oriental, largely Chinese, use of their body parts for medicine. His sentiments at those times were disgust, outrage, embarrassment and shame. At those times, he could feel his friends trying very hard not to look at him, not to say anything remotely anti-Chinese, when he knew that each and every one of them, like him, were about to explode. And the harder they tried, the worse it made him feel.
Finally, at the end of a National Geographic program about tigers in 1994, he said to those present, “Look at me. Am I not Chinese? Spit it out.”
After still another few long seconds of uncomfortable silence, his friend Grant finally abided, “Alright, no offence to you personally, Tony, but this Chinese tradition is obscene! It doesn’t heal me of anything; it just makes me sick!” A significant pause. “Well? Does this make you feel better?”
“You racist bastard!” mock-fumed Anthony. Then, seriously, “Yeah, man, that’s better. Yes, it is obscene. So how do we stop it?”
“You answered your own question before you posed it,” said Grant. “I’m a Whitey, see? I don't want to be branded a racist, which I know I will if I as much as lifted a finger, especially the middle one.”
Then, almost inexorably, all eyes fell on Anthony, and stayed there. After looking at them one by one in turn, he returned his gaze to Grant and said, mock-seriously, “Okay, you have a point there, but keep it in your pants.” Then, seriously, “I do agree with you, Grant. It does take a Chinese person to do it, and you’re looking at him.”
One of the clerks moved towards him and said, in Cantonese – the prevalent dialect in most North American Chinatowns – “Can I help you with something?”
It was a woman in her 30s, who now was looking point blank at his face, thin smile unwavering.
“Yes, maybe,” he answered, “I'm looking for some tiger bone medicine for my father, and a bear gall bladder for my mother. I see you have some tiger bone medicines here, but do you have any bear gall bladders?”
The woman looked at once nervous, her smile evaporated and her eyes shifted involuntarily until they returned to his face again.
“Just a moment,” she said, then slipped through a door in the back wall.
Anthony returned to looking at the tiger bone medicines in his hands, but he could sense a sudden tenseness that had overtaken the two remaining clerks behind the counters. Now they were unabashedly scrutinizing him, and still, there was no sign of recognition.
Momentarily, the door squeaked open again and a large man emerged, followed by the woman. He was of about the same height as Anthony's 5’9” – medium tall for the Chinese - but twice in girth.
“I can outrun him for sure, and can probably kick faster, but I'd better not engage him in a wrestling match,” Anthony thought.
Since the man was facing the front of the store, he was in line of sight of the TV beta-cam and the reporter across the street, but his attention was concentrated on Anthony, who took a quick step towards the back and took down another box of tiger bone medicine, thus effectively turning the man and the woman away from the front.
“So, you want to buy a bear gall bladder?” The man was looking Anthony up and down, away from his face and back again.
To counteract the proverbial Oriental inscrutability of his opponent, Anthony invoked his own. “Maybe more than one, depending on the price,” he said steadily.
“What's your name?”
“Just call me Mr. Lee,” he said without a blink. Extending his hand, he added, “and you're Mr….”
The man ignored him. “Where're you from?”
“Hong Kong.”
“How long here for?”
“About three years.”
“Where did you get your gall bladders from before?”
“I hunted.”
“It's illegal to take the gall bladder in BC. Legal in Quebec, but not here.”
“So it's illegal,” said Anthony with a shrug. “It's also illegal to buy or sell them.”
“So why do you stop hunting?”
“Who says I have? It’s just too much work. Too messy. And lately, too much heat.”
“What do you mean ‘too much heat’?”
“Too much talk about gall bladders. People are getting upset.” He shifted on his feet to a new stance. “Look. Are you doing business or are we just going to stand and talk all day?”
“Show me your driver's license.”
“What are you? Some kind of traffic cop? No. I don't carry my driver's license around when I shop for bear gall bladders. I’m sure you understand.”
The man frowned. “Where do you live. I'll deliver the bladders to you.”
“Not so fast. How much are they?”
“One grand and up.”
“Let's see them.”
The man hesitated a moment, then brought out two fig shaped objects from his pocket, black, rock hard, one about the size of a thumb, the other that of a small pear. “One grand and five grand.”
Anthony took the larger one and brought it to his nose. It was so completely dry it was almost odorless. He pretended to raise it up closer to the light to see it better, but in fact to bring it to the beta-cam's attention. “Nice, but too expensive. I can get an even bigger one at less than half the price.”
The man held out his hand and Anthony put the gall back into it. “Where's it from?” he asked.
“A bear gall is a bear gall is a bear gall.”
“Assuming first of all it’s a bear gall and not a cow gall or pig gall. But even if it is a bear gall, it could be from a local Black bear, or a Grizzly, or an Asiatic Black bear, and prices vary among them.”
“Four grand. Take it or leave it.”
“I'll have to think about it.”
“If you buy ten or more, I'll give you a good deal.”
“How good?”
“Three grand each, same size.”
“Not good enough.”
“You name your price. I'll say yes or no.”
“I'll buy this one for two thousand. Bottom line. After that, I'll talk volume.”
“No. If you change your mind, come back. Meanwhile, excuse me. I'm busy.”
“Fine. I don't have enough cash on me anyway. I'll just buy these tiger medicines for now.”
“As you wish.” And with that, the man disappeared again through the door.
Anthony sorted through the boxes in his hand, selected half a dozen and put the rest back on the shelf. He paid for them at the counter, exited the store and j-walked across the busy street straight at the beta-cam. Pulling one of the boxes from the bag, he brought it right up to the lens.
“So, Anthony, tell me what you bought,” asked the reporter, sticking her own mike in his face.
“Well, I bought, right off the shelf, six different boxes of Chinese patent medicines containing or purporting to contain tiger bone as an ingredient. This one I'm showing you,” he said, while rotating the box in front of the camera so that the ingredients list now faced the lens, “lists 24% tiger bone by weight.”
He noticed a few pedestrians stopping in their tracks to gawk at him and what he had in his hands, and tried to ignore them.
“Did you get any shots of the bear gall bladder, by the way?” he asked.
“We sure did,” boomed the cameraman, “and your whole conversation with the store owner, whatever you said.”
“So, what did you talk about?” asked the reporter.
“Basically, they have bear gall bladders for sale under the counter, origin undisclosed. They want at least four thousand dollars for a big one, less by the dozen.” Having been on TV before, he had learned to give sound bites, not long discourses.
“So, what is the legal status of bear gall bladders?”
“The legal status of bear gall bladders,” he began, having also learned to repeat the question before answering it, “depends on the country or province you're in. All the Asiatic bear species are endangered and importation of their body-parts is internationally illegal. In Canada, the law varies from province to province. In British Columbia and Manitoba, for example, bear gall bladders, even those taken from Canadian bears, are illegal to possess and to sell. In Ontario, they are illegal to sell, but legal to possess. In Quebec, they are legal both to possess and to sell.”
“Does this pose a problem?”
“Yes, this poses a big problem. Poached bear galls in BC, for example, can be laundered in Quebec. They'll even issue you a number and tag for each gall for selling and exporting purposes.”
“What is the penalty for violations in BC?”
“The penalty for violations in BC is unreasonably light. Maximum $10,000, and/or 6 months in prison. The Korean man recently convicted of possessing 88 bear gall bladders and four times as many bear paws for sale-purposes was fined $3,500 and no jail time. This is less than the street value of the one single gall I showed you today. It is considered just the cost of doing business, and a very low risk business at that.”
By now, a large crowd had gathered around the trio and their imposing machine. Anthony took a glance around and was shocked to see the store owner standing right behind the cameraman, glaring daggers at him. He felt a small but definite shove in the small of his back. He glanced back at the reporter and saw no special alarm on her face about whoever was standing behind him.
“And what about these tiger bone medicines. Are they legal?”
“Tiger bone medicines are internationally illegal. Canada does not allow them to be imported, but currently it is legal to openly sell them on Canadian store selves.”
“This makes no sense.”
“Exactly.”
“Can you explain that?”
“The international organization called Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species - CITES - classifies various species on their conservation status. CITES I means endangered, CITES II means threatened. Any time a species is classified CITES I, they cannot be internationally traded, in whole or part, dead or alive. But then of course they are smuggled, and the control of whatever smuggled into a certain country depends on the internal laws of that country. In Canada, case in point, there is no such internal law in effect. So, essentially, you cannot import these tiger bone medicines, but if you can smuggle them in, you could openly sell them, which is what I'm in the process of demonstrating.”
He stole another glance at the store-owner again. If looks could kill...
“What is your message to the government?”
“I have two messages to the government. One, that all provinces should make possessing and selling bear gall bladders illegal, and the fines of violation should at least be increased to match the street value of the goods seized. Two, that the selling of endangered species items should be banned throughout Canada, and the penalty for smuggling and selling violations should be high enough to be a deterrent.”
“Can you think of anything to add?”
“Yes. Tigers and some Asian bears are within one decade of extinction, and our North American bears are not far behind. There is no time to wait. Immediate action is required.”
“Well, that's great. Thank you, Mr. Marr.” The reporter extended her hand and Anthony shook it.
Turning to the cameraman, the reporter said, “Let's go and interview the store owner.”
“He's right here,” said Anthony without hesitation, pointing at the man.
The cameraman needed no prompting and rotated the beta-cam towards the store-owner, and the reporter turned towards him without a break in her stride. “So, how many bear gall bladders do you sell a month, sir?” She pointed her mike at him like an accusing finger.
The man's eyebrows went up, his face went blank. Then quickly, he brought up his hand to block the lens, and, glaring at Anthony with renewed venom, he hissed a single line in Cantonese before dashing into the nearest alley, “You are a dead man.”
Chinatown Journal
October 1995
If the stereotyped Halloween witch were to stumble into where Anthony Marr now found himself, she would be like the proverbial kid-in-a-candy-store. In the glassed-in display shelves were trays upon trays and jars upon jars of dried this and that - all once alive, or parts of something once alive. There were dried mushrooms of different species, some as large as dinner plates. There were dried stems and roots and seeds and fruits, mostly brown or black, of medicinal plants unidentifiable to the casual eye. There were dried animals galore - sea cucumbers, sea horses, lizards, deer musk glands, seal penises, shark fins, swallows' nests, thin slices of antlers still in velvet. And these were just what were above the counter.
It was a store called Wei Hai on Pender street near Main, the one with the big yellow awning in front - one of about two dozen traditional Chinese pharmacies amidst the restaurants and groceries and curio shops and book stores of Vancouver's historical and bustling Chinatown.
Unsavory as some of the animal parts were, Anthony Marr's quarry lay deeper in the store. There was a section where the so-called Patent Tradition Chinese Medicines were displayed. These were highly packaged items, usually pills in bottles, and bottles in glossy and brightly coloured paper boxes.
Anthony moved slowly, with stops here and there, towards the back of the store, using his peripheral vision to monitor the three store clerks behind the counters. There was no other customer in the store, and this made him somewhat uncomfortable. As he pretended interest in a bank of trays containing different kinds and grades of gin seng, he glanced out of the store across the busy street, and saw the large beta-cam on a tripod aimed straight at him, and the giant of a bearded cameraman crouching behind it, and the blonde woman reporter standing beside it, all standing out like sore thumbs amidst the smaller, dark-haired people milling around them, looking curiously at them, then at me. Fortunately, up to this point, the three store clerks hadn't shown signs of having noticed the anomaly across the street.
“If you can hear me, raise your hand,” Anthony murmured into the conceal mike under his lapel, and saw the reporter do just that.
This would be the third time he showed his face on television, but the first time on national TV. This should be the one to make the difference on the federal government level. He glanced at the three store clerks to see if there was any sign of recognition or suspicion, but they seemed to just be going about their business, not that they had yet taken a close look at him, which they soon would.
Anthony moved deeper towards the back of the store and began scanning as nonchalantly as possible the multi-coloured paper boxes lined up row upon row, all bearing Chinese writings and pictorial designs. There were bear bile pills, crocodile bile pills, seal penis pills, dog penis pills, deer musk pills, rhino skin pills, pangolin pills, but he had no need to look much further to find what he was looking for. On one of the higher shelves sat a large collection of boxes, about ten assortments in total, all bearing different renditions of the same majestic animal, and all sporting the beautiful Chinese character in various calligraphic styles, pronounced in Mandarin as “hu”, and in Cantonese as “fu” - tiger.
He reached up and took down a few different boxes and began checking the ingredients lists printed on their backs. Most listed about a dozen ingredients each, all by their Latin and Chinese names, mostly medicinal plants that seemed to vary from brand to brand, but the one thing in common was in the list of contents, the Latin name “Ossis Tigris” - tiger bone. Its listed concentrations ranged from 6% to 24% from brand to brand. Price - $8 for the box with 6%, and $22 for the one listing 24%.
He was looking at the boxes, mostly green or amber, but what he saw was red. Over the years, he'd been watching TV wildlife documentaries by the score, often in Caucasian company. Whenever the subject matter was the tiger or rhino or elephant or bear, especially the tiger, the concluding messages were usually one and the same, that these magnificent beasts were going down due largely to the Oriental, largely Chinese, use of their body parts for medicine. His sentiments at those times were disgust, outrage, embarrassment and shame. At those times, he could feel his friends trying very hard not to look at him, not to say anything remotely anti-Chinese, when he knew that each and every one of them, like him, were about to explode. And the harder they tried, the worse it made him feel.
Finally, at the end of a National Geographic program about tigers in 1994, he said to those present, “Look at me. Am I not Chinese? Spit it out.”
After still another few long seconds of uncomfortable silence, his friend Grant finally abided, “Alright, no offence to you personally, Tony, but this Chinese tradition is obscene! It doesn’t heal me of anything; it just makes me sick!” A significant pause. “Well? Does this make you feel better?”
“You racist bastard!” mock-fumed Anthony. Then, seriously, “Yeah, man, that’s better. Yes, it is obscene. So how do we stop it?”
“You answered your own question before you posed it,” said Grant. “I’m a Whitey, see? I don't want to be branded a racist, which I know I will if I as much as lifted a finger, especially the middle one.”
Then, almost inexorably, all eyes fell on Anthony, and stayed there. After looking at them one by one in turn, he returned his gaze to Grant and said, mock-seriously, “Okay, you have a point there, but keep it in your pants.” Then, seriously, “I do agree with you, Grant. It does take a Chinese person to do it, and you’re looking at him.”
One of the clerks moved towards him and said, in Cantonese – the prevalent dialect in most North American Chinatowns – “Can I help you with something?”
It was a woman in her 30s, who now was looking point blank at his face, thin smile unwavering.
“Yes, maybe,” he answered, “I'm looking for some tiger bone medicine for my father, and a bear gall bladder for my mother. I see you have some tiger bone medicines here, but do you have any bear gall bladders?”
The woman looked at once nervous, her smile evaporated and her eyes shifted involuntarily until they returned to his face again.
“Just a moment,” she said, then slipped through a door in the back wall.
Anthony returned to looking at the tiger bone medicines in his hands, but he could sense a sudden tenseness that had overtaken the two remaining clerks behind the counters. Now they were unabashedly scrutinizing him, and still, there was no sign of recognition.
Momentarily, the door squeaked open again and a large man emerged, followed by the woman. He was of about the same height as Anthony's 5’9” – medium tall for the Chinese - but twice in girth.
“I can outrun him for sure, and can probably kick faster, but I'd better not engage him in a wrestling match,” Anthony thought.
Since the man was facing the front of the store, he was in line of sight of the TV beta-cam and the reporter across the street, but his attention was concentrated on Anthony, who took a quick step towards the back and took down another box of tiger bone medicine, thus effectively turning the man and the woman away from the front.
“So, you want to buy a bear gall bladder?” The man was looking Anthony up and down, away from his face and back again.
To counteract the proverbial Oriental inscrutability of his opponent, Anthony invoked his own. “Maybe more than one, depending on the price,” he said steadily.
“What's your name?”
“Just call me Mr. Lee,” he said without a blink. Extending his hand, he added, “and you're Mr….”
The man ignored him. “Where're you from?”
“Hong Kong.”
“How long here for?”
“About three years.”
“Where did you get your gall bladders from before?”
“I hunted.”
“It's illegal to take the gall bladder in BC. Legal in Quebec, but not here.”
“So it's illegal,” said Anthony with a shrug. “It's also illegal to buy or sell them.”
“So why do you stop hunting?”
“Who says I have? It’s just too much work. Too messy. And lately, too much heat.”
“What do you mean ‘too much heat’?”
“Too much talk about gall bladders. People are getting upset.” He shifted on his feet to a new stance. “Look. Are you doing business or are we just going to stand and talk all day?”
“Show me your driver's license.”
“What are you? Some kind of traffic cop? No. I don't carry my driver's license around when I shop for bear gall bladders. I’m sure you understand.”
The man frowned. “Where do you live. I'll deliver the bladders to you.”
“Not so fast. How much are they?”
“One grand and up.”
“Let's see them.”
The man hesitated a moment, then brought out two fig shaped objects from his pocket, black, rock hard, one about the size of a thumb, the other that of a small pear. “One grand and five grand.”
Anthony took the larger one and brought it to his nose. It was so completely dry it was almost odorless. He pretended to raise it up closer to the light to see it better, but in fact to bring it to the beta-cam's attention. “Nice, but too expensive. I can get an even bigger one at less than half the price.”
The man held out his hand and Anthony put the gall back into it. “Where's it from?” he asked.
“A bear gall is a bear gall is a bear gall.”
“Assuming first of all it’s a bear gall and not a cow gall or pig gall. But even if it is a bear gall, it could be from a local Black bear, or a Grizzly, or an Asiatic Black bear, and prices vary among them.”
“Four grand. Take it or leave it.”
“I'll have to think about it.”
“If you buy ten or more, I'll give you a good deal.”
“How good?”
“Three grand each, same size.”
“Not good enough.”
“You name your price. I'll say yes or no.”
“I'll buy this one for two thousand. Bottom line. After that, I'll talk volume.”
“No. If you change your mind, come back. Meanwhile, excuse me. I'm busy.”
“Fine. I don't have enough cash on me anyway. I'll just buy these tiger medicines for now.”
“As you wish.” And with that, the man disappeared again through the door.
Anthony sorted through the boxes in his hand, selected half a dozen and put the rest back on the shelf. He paid for them at the counter, exited the store and j-walked across the busy street straight at the beta-cam. Pulling one of the boxes from the bag, he brought it right up to the lens.
“So, Anthony, tell me what you bought,” asked the reporter, sticking her own mike in his face.
“Well, I bought, right off the shelf, six different boxes of Chinese patent medicines containing or purporting to contain tiger bone as an ingredient. This one I'm showing you,” he said, while rotating the box in front of the camera so that the ingredients list now faced the lens, “lists 24% tiger bone by weight.”
He noticed a few pedestrians stopping in their tracks to gawk at him and what he had in his hands, and tried to ignore them.
“Did you get any shots of the bear gall bladder, by the way?” he asked.
“We sure did,” boomed the cameraman, “and your whole conversation with the store owner, whatever you said.”
“So, what did you talk about?” asked the reporter.
“Basically, they have bear gall bladders for sale under the counter, origin undisclosed. They want at least four thousand dollars for a big one, less by the dozen.” Having been on TV before, he had learned to give sound bites, not long discourses.
“So, what is the legal status of bear gall bladders?”
“The legal status of bear gall bladders,” he began, having also learned to repeat the question before answering it, “depends on the country or province you're in. All the Asiatic bear species are endangered and importation of their body-parts is internationally illegal. In Canada, the law varies from province to province. In British Columbia and Manitoba, for example, bear gall bladders, even those taken from Canadian bears, are illegal to possess and to sell. In Ontario, they are illegal to sell, but legal to possess. In Quebec, they are legal both to possess and to sell.”
“Does this pose a problem?”
“Yes, this poses a big problem. Poached bear galls in BC, for example, can be laundered in Quebec. They'll even issue you a number and tag for each gall for selling and exporting purposes.”
“What is the penalty for violations in BC?”
“The penalty for violations in BC is unreasonably light. Maximum $10,000, and/or 6 months in prison. The Korean man recently convicted of possessing 88 bear gall bladders and four times as many bear paws for sale-purposes was fined $3,500 and no jail time. This is less than the street value of the one single gall I showed you today. It is considered just the cost of doing business, and a very low risk business at that.”
By now, a large crowd had gathered around the trio and their imposing machine. Anthony took a glance around and was shocked to see the store owner standing right behind the cameraman, glaring daggers at him. He felt a small but definite shove in the small of his back. He glanced back at the reporter and saw no special alarm on her face about whoever was standing behind him.
“And what about these tiger bone medicines. Are they legal?”
“Tiger bone medicines are internationally illegal. Canada does not allow them to be imported, but currently it is legal to openly sell them on Canadian store selves.”
“This makes no sense.”
“Exactly.”
“Can you explain that?”
“The international organization called Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species - CITES - classifies various species on their conservation status. CITES I means endangered, CITES II means threatened. Any time a species is classified CITES I, they cannot be internationally traded, in whole or part, dead or alive. But then of course they are smuggled, and the control of whatever smuggled into a certain country depends on the internal laws of that country. In Canada, case in point, there is no such internal law in effect. So, essentially, you cannot import these tiger bone medicines, but if you can smuggle them in, you could openly sell them, which is what I'm in the process of demonstrating.”
He stole another glance at the store-owner again. If looks could kill...
“What is your message to the government?”
“I have two messages to the government. One, that all provinces should make possessing and selling bear gall bladders illegal, and the fines of violation should at least be increased to match the street value of the goods seized. Two, that the selling of endangered species items should be banned throughout Canada, and the penalty for smuggling and selling violations should be high enough to be a deterrent.”
“Can you think of anything to add?”
“Yes. Tigers and some Asian bears are within one decade of extinction, and our North American bears are not far behind. There is no time to wait. Immediate action is required.”
“Well, that's great. Thank you, Mr. Marr.” The reporter extended her hand and Anthony shook it.
Turning to the cameraman, the reporter said, “Let's go and interview the store owner.”
“He's right here,” said Anthony without hesitation, pointing at the man.
The cameraman needed no prompting and rotated the beta-cam towards the store-owner, and the reporter turned towards him without a break in her stride. “So, how many bear gall bladders do you sell a month, sir?” She pointed her mike at him like an accusing finger.
The man's eyebrows went up, his face went blank. Then quickly, he brought up his hand to block the lens, and, glaring at Anthony with renewed venom, he hissed a single line in Cantonese before dashing into the nearest alley, “You are a dead man.”
1997-04-24 INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
[Bloody Superstition]
Anthony Marr wants to stop the medicinal use of tiger products before it destroys a magnificent species,
and save the planet in the process.
by Shawn Blore
The Georgia Straight magazine
Vancouver, BC
April 24, 1997
Pessimist give the world's tigers 5 years. Realists, 10.
They're the kind of numbers that make you want to quietly despair, to give up, to flip the channel and think about something more pleasant. Melrose Place maybe, or Roseanne. Marr, however, whether from a sense of conceit, ignorance, or a staggering sense of confidence, saw nothing impossible in the task of bringing the tiger back from the brink...
... To highlight the extent of Vancouver's tiger trade, Marr kicked off a media blitz in January 1996. Local journalists were invited on an endangered species tour through Chinatown's apothecaries. The tour began in the low-ceilinged warren that serves as WCWC's headquarters. Marr upended his briefcase, spilling out 15-20 boxes of Chinese patent medicines: tiger plasters, tiger pills, tiger-based medicaments for rheumatism, tired blood, soft bones, and sexual impotence, all of them purchased in shops in Vancouver's Chinatown. Pointing to the ingredients lists on the diverse packages, Marr picked out the symbols, words, and phrases that in Latin, English and Chinese spelled out “tiger bone”.
The next part of the tour was a trip along Pender, Main and Keefer Streets, with Marr indicating here and there the shops and apothecaries dealing in tiger medicinals and inviting journalists to go in and check the shelves for themselves. Six shops out of 10 stocked a variety of boxes, cartons and bottles labeled with some variation of the word Os Tigris - tiger bone.
The media loved it. Marr made it on to TV news both locally and nationally, and stories appeared in city magazines and community papers. He used his pulpit to heap scorn upon Canadian wildlife regulations. “Canada's wildlife laws could use an aphrodisiac,' Marr said, “because right now, they're totally impotent.” He was equally hard-hitting in his presentations to Chinese community groups and at Eastside Vancouver high schools. Traditional Chinese medicine's use of parts of animals like tigers and rhinos, Marr said, and the cutting of many urban trees for that matter, were based on nothing but pure superstition. That superstition was destroying a magnificent species. The fact that the practice was tolerated by the Chinese-Canadian community only blackened their reputation in mainstream Canadian society.
Environmentalists heaved a sigh of relief. Here was someone tackling a problem they had long known about but dared not touch. “It's great that it's a Chinese person doing the work he's doing.” said Nathalie Chalifour, World Wildlife Fund Canada's tiger expert, “because when it's a person like me doing it, well, I'm white; I'm more likely to be accused to being racist, which is really unfortunate, but it does happen.”
Vancouver's Chinese media were as quick to jump on the story as their English counterparts. Marr's campaign was covered by both the Ming Pao and the Sing Tao newspapers, and he appeared on several Chinese language radio programs. According to Ming Pao columnist and CJVB radio host Gabriel Yiu, the Chinese community's reaction to Marr's campaign was mixed. His straight talk on superstition did offend some, but there was also those who took pride in the fact that a Chinese Canadian was working on environmental concerns. “For a long period of time when people are talking about monster homes, tree cutting, killing wild animals for some of their body parts,” Yiu said, “people do have the impression that the Chinese community is the cause of that. I think the work Anthony did set a very good example that we do have people in the Chinese community who are concerned about these issues.”...
According to Vancouver city councilor Don Lee, Marr's effectiveness was limited... “I don't know Anthony Marr that well. The Chinese Community doesn't know him well at all,” Lee said. “We don't know where he comes from. We don't know why he's doing all this.” As it turns out, those are two of the most interesting questions that could be asked about Anthony Marr.
Born in February 1944, in southern China, Anthony Seeu-Sung Marr fled to Hong Kong along with the rest of his family shortly after the Communist revolution. Family legend has Marr's father burning the deeds of the family's extensive land-holdings for a moment's warmth during the first refugee winter...
(In 1965), Marr came to Canada to study science at the University of Manitoba... At the same time, his relationship with a Hong Kong girl fell to bits when she dropped him on orders from her parents. Marr has never forgiven Chinese culture for the snub. “As a result of that incident, I have never dated a Chinese girl again,” Marr said. It's a decision that isolated him somewhat from the Chinese community, but, according to Marr, it also allowed him to integrate more fully into Canadian society than other Chinese immigrants of his generation.
In 1966, Marr switched over to the physics department of the University of British Columbia. His summers he spent in the bush in northern Manitoba and British Columbia, working as a geologist's assistant. It was work that can only be idealized by someone who has never done it. Marr said, “The student is the geologist's personal servant - more like slave, considering the pay, which was only $280 per month. I made and carried his lunch, and every few feet, the geologist would pick up a rock sample about twice the size of my fist and drop it into my knapsack. I had to carry that ever-heavier thing all day, wading into swamps that would sometimes come up to my chest or higher. Your shirt would be black with flies and mosquitoes. There could be a bear behind every tree. It was brutal, but also absolutely beautiful. And this was how I bonded with nature.”
After he graduated with a B.Sc. in 1970, Marr took a job as a live-in house-father for emotionally disturbed kids, then a career in real estate. He said he had a heavy student loan to pay off. One senses he also had a need to gain acceptance among the Vancouver business community. “I made rookie of the year, then Gold Club, Diamond Club, all that,” Marr said. “I bought a couple of horses - hunters-jumpers - and got involved with the high social elite you see down in Southlands.” Snap shots from the time show a short-haired Marr in boots and riding breeches, sitting atop a bay Thoroughbred gelding.
The real estate phased continued for several years. Marr bought a small acreage in the suburbs. He dated but never married. “The work first became routine, then boring, then irksome, then unbearable. I was still good at it, but the initial challenge was gone,” he said.
About this time, things took a strange turn. Whether from boredom, a need to be alone, or perhaps simple a desire to see the sights, he left his job and set off on a solo journey in East Africa, primarily in the Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge region of Tanzania. At some point during that three month sojourn, something happened that changed the whole focus of Marr's life. “If you want to be dramatic, you could say it came to me all at once in a blinding flash while I was camping on the savannah, but really, it developed very gradually.” What Marr was catching sight of was a completely new philosophical system, one that in Marr's view is comprehensive enough to explain the organization and development of life, society and the Cosmos itself.
The full tenet of this system came to him in dribs and drabs over a period of many months during and after his return. Marr collected each of these thoughts on a file card - more than 1,000 of them by the end - and worked at ordering, arranging, and reordering them, trying to assemble his thoughts into a coherent whole. The process took years. Marr's live-in girlfriend walked out. “I really shouldn't be living with someone at that point," Marr said. “I had to have my own room. I had to have a ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign on the door, and if anybody as much as knocked, my tenuous mental construct would fall down like a house of cards.” The net result of his shuffling and reshuffling, typing and retyping, was a manuscript more than 800 pages in length, describing a new and comprehensive philosophical and phenomenological system. Marr christened it OMNI-SCIENCE.... (see www.HOPE-CARE.org, www.Omni-Science.org)
At first glance, OMNI-SCIENCE bears some resemblance to the ideas of the Jesuit philosopher-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Both suggest that the development of humanity must logically proceed in a converging upward spiral, which Marr calls Integrative Transcendence, towards ever-superior levels of organization and unity. Marr, however, is quick to point out how his system differs from those of other western philosophers. “No philosophical or religious system I’ve encountered is cosmic enough,” said Marr. “They're too anthropocentric, too narrowly focused.” Marr's system purportedly incorporates everything - inorganic and organic - throughout the Universe, from the Big Bang to whatever end, all participating in the multi-levelled Integrative Transcendence spiral towards universal life and consciousness.
Hogwash? Possibly. Even Marr himself had doubts (about the acceptability of his system in the eyes of high academia). In the late 80s, Marr tossed both manuscript and portable type-writer into his little green Toyota Celica and set off down the West Coast to test his system with the best academic minds he could find. One of the stops was the University of California at Berkeley, and another was Stanford. “This was when my sales training paid off. When I got to town, the first thing I'd do was find a course catalog and look up the professors who were teaching the courses I liked. Back in my hotel room, I'd crank out a dozen or so letters. ‘Dear Prof. so and so, I have a matter of philosophical interest that I'd like to discuss with you. The time required would be about two hours...’ Then I'd go back to campus and put the letters into the professors’ cubbyholes. The next day, I'd call and ask for an appointment. We'd talk for two hours, and at the end, I'd ask for a letter of critique.”
The good professors' reactions to this approach can be discerned from the letter written by William Kimbel, president of the Institute of Human Origins at Berkeley: “Owing to the large number of half-baked theories on cosmology currently in circulation, I admit that I faced the prospect of my meeting with Mr. Marr with some trepidation. From the outset, however, it was clear that Mr. Marr is no amateur populariser. On the contrary, he is a dedicated scholar whose theories, I believe, make a profound contribution to the fundamental definition of humankind in relation to the broader universe… implications of great depth and breadth for the future course of human actions… too important to ignore.”
Marr received similarly effusive letters from other professors at Berkeley, Stanford, and the Universities of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia...
Heady stuff. Yet, more than a decade later, the manuscript remains unpublished. Professor Braxton Alfred of Anthropology, UBC, said he even offered to help find a publisher, but Marr said his manuscript was not yet ready for publication. He did leave a copy of the then manuscript behind after his presentation, but due to professional pressures, Alfred didn't get around to looking at it until recently. Reading it now, Alfred said, only increases his respect for Marr. It also sheds light on what it was that set him on his current crusade.
“The presentation he gave me was hard science, very thoroughly presented. He was right on the numbers with everything in the presentation. I presumed likewise in these documents,” Alfred said, referring to the OMNI-SCIENCE manuscript, “but these are quite a different thing. That man had a revelation in Africa. There's no other way to characterize it. It's clear that he was experiencing some sort of emotional trauma, and something touched him, and what these documents record are the revealed truth of that contact.”
According to the manuscript, Alfred said, Marr had reached a crisis and was sitting in the snows of Kilimanjaro, pointing a gun at his head. Then, as stated in Marr's text: “The sun went down, the moon came up, and more than my hand had begun trembling. It was then that this mysterious source of wisdom address me for the first time: ‘I am seeking a miracle worker, to work a miracle upon this Earth, on my behalf. Since you seem to have no further use of this body of yours, which seems to be in prime condition, will you surrender it to me?’”
“That's when the entity, or whatever it is, first made contact with him,” Alfred said, “but, apparently, the contact continues. It seems that there is no end to it. I would not be surprised if he has conversations with this entity still.”
Having read the manuscript, Alfred said he is no longer puzzled by Marr's decision to turn away from the task of perfecting his book to work on behalf of endangered species. “It was in Africa that this naturism force first came to the fore...” The manuscript also gives some indication of the source of Marr's willingness to take on seemingly hopeless causes. “He clearly came to a crisis point in his life,” Alfred said, “and the heavens opened up and truth was revealed, and he's been going strong eversince.”
Whether his confidence came stems from, when the “‘19th-century scholar' decided to prove himself as an environmental saviour, he displayed a thoroughly 19th century sense of ambition..."
… Although some conservationists predict the tiger will be extinct in five years, Anthony Marr is convinced he can reverse the prophecy…
… China imported the equivalent of 400 grown tigers and exported 27 million tiger derivative products from 1990 to 1993… About 39,000 individual tiger containing products were seized in BC in 1996, including everything from medicinals to tiger claws…
A Vancouver branch of Asian Conservation Awareness Program is planning to begin an ad blitz this June, timed to coincide with the dragon-boat festival. Ironically, Marr will likely not be invited to participate. According to ACAP's Vancouver organizer Ling Zheng, Marr's confrontational style doesn't fit in with ACAP's approach, which hinges on establishing partnerships with the Chinese community groups and obtaining sponsorship from prominent corporations. “We're trying to reach out to the Chinese community, so we try not to use his name,” Zheng said. “If we mention Anthony Marr, I will probably not get any help from organizations like SUCCESS or the Chinese Cultural Centre. He can be quite harsh towards certain Chinese people, and I've even heard that in the Chinese community he's considered like a traitor.”
Whether that’s true or not, Marr has shifted his efforts from reducing consumption into preserving tiger habitat. With the aid of a $75,000 grant from the Canadian International Development Agency, Marr has gone to India to work towards protecting two Indian tiger reserves from encroachment and poaching by local villagers. The plan is to take a traveling multi-media show to villages around the tiger reserves and convince the villagers that the tiger is worth more to them alive than dead.
“Do you think these women enjoy walking five miles every day into the bush to collect a bunch of twigs and carry it back to the village on top of their heads? They do it because they have no choice,” Marr said. “If we give them a choice and say, Look, we’re going to develop ecotourism, we’re going to organize tourist groups to come to your village, and maybe you can develop some native products to sell to them… Wouldn’t you rather stay at home and weave baskets with your kids than walk five miles to haul water?” Other conservationists from other groups have made these arguments before, often with little success, but with characteristic confidence, Marr is convinced he will succeed.
Back in the offices of Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the video tiger rolls up from the ground and twists back through the gruesome contortions of death; the dark-haired man lowers a battered rifle and walks backwards out of the picture, and the orange-and-back form of a Bengal tiger stands once again beneath the forest canopy, proud, free, and alive. For a brief while longer.
- Shawn Blore
[Bloody Superstition]
Anthony Marr wants to stop the medicinal use of tiger products before it destroys a magnificent species,
and save the planet in the process.
by Shawn Blore
The Georgia Straight magazine
Vancouver, BC
April 24, 1997
Pessimist give the world's tigers 5 years. Realists, 10.
They're the kind of numbers that make you want to quietly despair, to give up, to flip the channel and think about something more pleasant. Melrose Place maybe, or Roseanne. Marr, however, whether from a sense of conceit, ignorance, or a staggering sense of confidence, saw nothing impossible in the task of bringing the tiger back from the brink...
... To highlight the extent of Vancouver's tiger trade, Marr kicked off a media blitz in January 1996. Local journalists were invited on an endangered species tour through Chinatown's apothecaries. The tour began in the low-ceilinged warren that serves as WCWC's headquarters. Marr upended his briefcase, spilling out 15-20 boxes of Chinese patent medicines: tiger plasters, tiger pills, tiger-based medicaments for rheumatism, tired blood, soft bones, and sexual impotence, all of them purchased in shops in Vancouver's Chinatown. Pointing to the ingredients lists on the diverse packages, Marr picked out the symbols, words, and phrases that in Latin, English and Chinese spelled out “tiger bone”.
The next part of the tour was a trip along Pender, Main and Keefer Streets, with Marr indicating here and there the shops and apothecaries dealing in tiger medicinals and inviting journalists to go in and check the shelves for themselves. Six shops out of 10 stocked a variety of boxes, cartons and bottles labeled with some variation of the word Os Tigris - tiger bone.
The media loved it. Marr made it on to TV news both locally and nationally, and stories appeared in city magazines and community papers. He used his pulpit to heap scorn upon Canadian wildlife regulations. “Canada's wildlife laws could use an aphrodisiac,' Marr said, “because right now, they're totally impotent.” He was equally hard-hitting in his presentations to Chinese community groups and at Eastside Vancouver high schools. Traditional Chinese medicine's use of parts of animals like tigers and rhinos, Marr said, and the cutting of many urban trees for that matter, were based on nothing but pure superstition. That superstition was destroying a magnificent species. The fact that the practice was tolerated by the Chinese-Canadian community only blackened their reputation in mainstream Canadian society.
Environmentalists heaved a sigh of relief. Here was someone tackling a problem they had long known about but dared not touch. “It's great that it's a Chinese person doing the work he's doing.” said Nathalie Chalifour, World Wildlife Fund Canada's tiger expert, “because when it's a person like me doing it, well, I'm white; I'm more likely to be accused to being racist, which is really unfortunate, but it does happen.”
Vancouver's Chinese media were as quick to jump on the story as their English counterparts. Marr's campaign was covered by both the Ming Pao and the Sing Tao newspapers, and he appeared on several Chinese language radio programs. According to Ming Pao columnist and CJVB radio host Gabriel Yiu, the Chinese community's reaction to Marr's campaign was mixed. His straight talk on superstition did offend some, but there was also those who took pride in the fact that a Chinese Canadian was working on environmental concerns. “For a long period of time when people are talking about monster homes, tree cutting, killing wild animals for some of their body parts,” Yiu said, “people do have the impression that the Chinese community is the cause of that. I think the work Anthony did set a very good example that we do have people in the Chinese community who are concerned about these issues.”...
According to Vancouver city councilor Don Lee, Marr's effectiveness was limited... “I don't know Anthony Marr that well. The Chinese Community doesn't know him well at all,” Lee said. “We don't know where he comes from. We don't know why he's doing all this.” As it turns out, those are two of the most interesting questions that could be asked about Anthony Marr.
Born in February 1944, in southern China, Anthony Seeu-Sung Marr fled to Hong Kong along with the rest of his family shortly after the Communist revolution. Family legend has Marr's father burning the deeds of the family's extensive land-holdings for a moment's warmth during the first refugee winter...
(In 1965), Marr came to Canada to study science at the University of Manitoba... At the same time, his relationship with a Hong Kong girl fell to bits when she dropped him on orders from her parents. Marr has never forgiven Chinese culture for the snub. “As a result of that incident, I have never dated a Chinese girl again,” Marr said. It's a decision that isolated him somewhat from the Chinese community, but, according to Marr, it also allowed him to integrate more fully into Canadian society than other Chinese immigrants of his generation.
In 1966, Marr switched over to the physics department of the University of British Columbia. His summers he spent in the bush in northern Manitoba and British Columbia, working as a geologist's assistant. It was work that can only be idealized by someone who has never done it. Marr said, “The student is the geologist's personal servant - more like slave, considering the pay, which was only $280 per month. I made and carried his lunch, and every few feet, the geologist would pick up a rock sample about twice the size of my fist and drop it into my knapsack. I had to carry that ever-heavier thing all day, wading into swamps that would sometimes come up to my chest or higher. Your shirt would be black with flies and mosquitoes. There could be a bear behind every tree. It was brutal, but also absolutely beautiful. And this was how I bonded with nature.”
After he graduated with a B.Sc. in 1970, Marr took a job as a live-in house-father for emotionally disturbed kids, then a career in real estate. He said he had a heavy student loan to pay off. One senses he also had a need to gain acceptance among the Vancouver business community. “I made rookie of the year, then Gold Club, Diamond Club, all that,” Marr said. “I bought a couple of horses - hunters-jumpers - and got involved with the high social elite you see down in Southlands.” Snap shots from the time show a short-haired Marr in boots and riding breeches, sitting atop a bay Thoroughbred gelding.
The real estate phased continued for several years. Marr bought a small acreage in the suburbs. He dated but never married. “The work first became routine, then boring, then irksome, then unbearable. I was still good at it, but the initial challenge was gone,” he said.
About this time, things took a strange turn. Whether from boredom, a need to be alone, or perhaps simple a desire to see the sights, he left his job and set off on a solo journey in East Africa, primarily in the Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge region of Tanzania. At some point during that three month sojourn, something happened that changed the whole focus of Marr's life. “If you want to be dramatic, you could say it came to me all at once in a blinding flash while I was camping on the savannah, but really, it developed very gradually.” What Marr was catching sight of was a completely new philosophical system, one that in Marr's view is comprehensive enough to explain the organization and development of life, society and the Cosmos itself.
The full tenet of this system came to him in dribs and drabs over a period of many months during and after his return. Marr collected each of these thoughts on a file card - more than 1,000 of them by the end - and worked at ordering, arranging, and reordering them, trying to assemble his thoughts into a coherent whole. The process took years. Marr's live-in girlfriend walked out. “I really shouldn't be living with someone at that point," Marr said. “I had to have my own room. I had to have a ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign on the door, and if anybody as much as knocked, my tenuous mental construct would fall down like a house of cards.” The net result of his shuffling and reshuffling, typing and retyping, was a manuscript more than 800 pages in length, describing a new and comprehensive philosophical and phenomenological system. Marr christened it OMNI-SCIENCE.... (see www.HOPE-CARE.org, www.Omni-Science.org)
At first glance, OMNI-SCIENCE bears some resemblance to the ideas of the Jesuit philosopher-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Both suggest that the development of humanity must logically proceed in a converging upward spiral, which Marr calls Integrative Transcendence, towards ever-superior levels of organization and unity. Marr, however, is quick to point out how his system differs from those of other western philosophers. “No philosophical or religious system I’ve encountered is cosmic enough,” said Marr. “They're too anthropocentric, too narrowly focused.” Marr's system purportedly incorporates everything - inorganic and organic - throughout the Universe, from the Big Bang to whatever end, all participating in the multi-levelled Integrative Transcendence spiral towards universal life and consciousness.
Hogwash? Possibly. Even Marr himself had doubts (about the acceptability of his system in the eyes of high academia). In the late 80s, Marr tossed both manuscript and portable type-writer into his little green Toyota Celica and set off down the West Coast to test his system with the best academic minds he could find. One of the stops was the University of California at Berkeley, and another was Stanford. “This was when my sales training paid off. When I got to town, the first thing I'd do was find a course catalog and look up the professors who were teaching the courses I liked. Back in my hotel room, I'd crank out a dozen or so letters. ‘Dear Prof. so and so, I have a matter of philosophical interest that I'd like to discuss with you. The time required would be about two hours...’ Then I'd go back to campus and put the letters into the professors’ cubbyholes. The next day, I'd call and ask for an appointment. We'd talk for two hours, and at the end, I'd ask for a letter of critique.”
The good professors' reactions to this approach can be discerned from the letter written by William Kimbel, president of the Institute of Human Origins at Berkeley: “Owing to the large number of half-baked theories on cosmology currently in circulation, I admit that I faced the prospect of my meeting with Mr. Marr with some trepidation. From the outset, however, it was clear that Mr. Marr is no amateur populariser. On the contrary, he is a dedicated scholar whose theories, I believe, make a profound contribution to the fundamental definition of humankind in relation to the broader universe… implications of great depth and breadth for the future course of human actions… too important to ignore.”
Marr received similarly effusive letters from other professors at Berkeley, Stanford, and the Universities of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia...
Heady stuff. Yet, more than a decade later, the manuscript remains unpublished. Professor Braxton Alfred of Anthropology, UBC, said he even offered to help find a publisher, but Marr said his manuscript was not yet ready for publication. He did leave a copy of the then manuscript behind after his presentation, but due to professional pressures, Alfred didn't get around to looking at it until recently. Reading it now, Alfred said, only increases his respect for Marr. It also sheds light on what it was that set him on his current crusade.
“The presentation he gave me was hard science, very thoroughly presented. He was right on the numbers with everything in the presentation. I presumed likewise in these documents,” Alfred said, referring to the OMNI-SCIENCE manuscript, “but these are quite a different thing. That man had a revelation in Africa. There's no other way to characterize it. It's clear that he was experiencing some sort of emotional trauma, and something touched him, and what these documents record are the revealed truth of that contact.”
According to the manuscript, Alfred said, Marr had reached a crisis and was sitting in the snows of Kilimanjaro, pointing a gun at his head. Then, as stated in Marr's text: “The sun went down, the moon came up, and more than my hand had begun trembling. It was then that this mysterious source of wisdom address me for the first time: ‘I am seeking a miracle worker, to work a miracle upon this Earth, on my behalf. Since you seem to have no further use of this body of yours, which seems to be in prime condition, will you surrender it to me?’”
“That's when the entity, or whatever it is, first made contact with him,” Alfred said, “but, apparently, the contact continues. It seems that there is no end to it. I would not be surprised if he has conversations with this entity still.”
Having read the manuscript, Alfred said he is no longer puzzled by Marr's decision to turn away from the task of perfecting his book to work on behalf of endangered species. “It was in Africa that this naturism force first came to the fore...” The manuscript also gives some indication of the source of Marr's willingness to take on seemingly hopeless causes. “He clearly came to a crisis point in his life,” Alfred said, “and the heavens opened up and truth was revealed, and he's been going strong eversince.”
Whether his confidence came stems from, when the “‘19th-century scholar' decided to prove himself as an environmental saviour, he displayed a thoroughly 19th century sense of ambition..."
… Although some conservationists predict the tiger will be extinct in five years, Anthony Marr is convinced he can reverse the prophecy…
… China imported the equivalent of 400 grown tigers and exported 27 million tiger derivative products from 1990 to 1993… About 39,000 individual tiger containing products were seized in BC in 1996, including everything from medicinals to tiger claws…
A Vancouver branch of Asian Conservation Awareness Program is planning to begin an ad blitz this June, timed to coincide with the dragon-boat festival. Ironically, Marr will likely not be invited to participate. According to ACAP's Vancouver organizer Ling Zheng, Marr's confrontational style doesn't fit in with ACAP's approach, which hinges on establishing partnerships with the Chinese community groups and obtaining sponsorship from prominent corporations. “We're trying to reach out to the Chinese community, so we try not to use his name,” Zheng said. “If we mention Anthony Marr, I will probably not get any help from organizations like SUCCESS or the Chinese Cultural Centre. He can be quite harsh towards certain Chinese people, and I've even heard that in the Chinese community he's considered like a traitor.”
Whether that’s true or not, Marr has shifted his efforts from reducing consumption into preserving tiger habitat. With the aid of a $75,000 grant from the Canadian International Development Agency, Marr has gone to India to work towards protecting two Indian tiger reserves from encroachment and poaching by local villagers. The plan is to take a traveling multi-media show to villages around the tiger reserves and convince the villagers that the tiger is worth more to them alive than dead.
“Do you think these women enjoy walking five miles every day into the bush to collect a bunch of twigs and carry it back to the village on top of their heads? They do it because they have no choice,” Marr said. “If we give them a choice and say, Look, we’re going to develop ecotourism, we’re going to organize tourist groups to come to your village, and maybe you can develop some native products to sell to them… Wouldn’t you rather stay at home and weave baskets with your kids than walk five miles to haul water?” Other conservationists from other groups have made these arguments before, often with little success, but with characteristic confidence, Marr is convinced he will succeed.
Back in the offices of Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the video tiger rolls up from the ground and twists back through the gruesome contortions of death; the dark-haired man lowers a battered rifle and walks backwards out of the picture, and the orange-and-back form of a Bengal tiger stands once again beneath the forest canopy, proud, free, and alive. For a brief while longer.
- Shawn Blore
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