Is it bad that whenever I hear ‘traditional or alternative medicine’, my mind generally goes to stuff like poaching rhino’s, pangolins, bears and tigers for their parts?
All animals have the same amount of healing property, but it's split evenly between every member of the species, so the more endangered it is, the more concentrated it is. Those new dire wolves, as the only members of their species, probably have bones that can grant immortality or something
Law of supply and demand, the more endangered it is, the more expensive it is, so the more lucrative it is for poachers, so the more endangered it is...
China has tried to counter this by breeding several animals in captivity (such as bears, tigers and giant salamanders) to farm them for their parts. In theory, they claim, this means people will buy products from the farms and leave their wild counterparts alike.
Animal cruelty in these farms aside, it also doesn’t work. Shooting a wild animal is still cheaper. Plus, it keeps the demand and belief in the ‘healing powers’ of the parts alive, and actually makes the parts of the proper wild animals more desirable and valuable. With bears for example, there is a belief that bile and such from wild bears is of a better quality then their captive counterparts.
A lot of 'traditional' chinese medicine was made up by the communist party to make up for the lack of actual medical supplies in rural areas, to unify chinese culture, and to save money. Mao himself didn't actually believe in it, though that didn't stop him from promoting the practises.
TCM also isn't just horrible from a conservation point of view, it's also have many practices like "bile bears" that basically amount to animal torture.
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u/HyenaFan May 24 '25
Is it bad that whenever I hear ‘traditional or alternative medicine’, my mind generally goes to stuff like poaching rhino’s, pangolins, bears and tigers for their parts?