clipped from www.motherjones.com Vietnam's Wildlife Farms a Cruel Hoax — By Julia Whitty | Fri May 29, 2009 3:15 PM PST The livestock in Southeast Asia’s commercial wildlife farms are rare snakes, turtles, crocodiles, monkeys, tigers, bears, and other threatened wildlife. The "farms" are supposed to be places where rare species are bred in captivity for the purpose of producing meat and wildlife products. Okay, even from far away, the premise smells bad. Apparently the farms aren't alleviating pressures on wild populations only making them worse. This according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Vietnam’s Forest Protection Department, who found commercial wildlife farms depleting wildlife and contributing to illegal trade. Worst affected are tigers and bears whose body parts or secretions are valued in traditional medicine. I'm still favoring the aspirin trade. Can't we sell them some aspirin? Seriously, it's gotta be cheaper. Not to mention actually effective.