clipped from www.latimes.com

Bucking thousands of years of lore about the medicinal value of tiger bones for treating such ailments as rheumatism, in 1993 China agreed to ban all trade in parts and products from the endangered animals. Since then, Chinese demand for tiger bones has dropped, public acceptance of the ban is nearly universal and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have found what they say are better substitutes. Yet the population of wild tigers and it is believed that there are only about 4,000 left, fewer than 50 in China. Now 37 members of the U.S. Congress, at the urging of environmental groups, have written a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao asking Beijing to take one more step toward saving the wild tiger from extinction: closing the country's tiger farms.

Wild tigers are, in fact, priceless. Let's save them before it's too late.