October 1995
Dear Homo Sapiens:
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 mutli-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 pig!”
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.”
Raminothna
the Fortunate and the Called Upon
at your service
1995-11-22-3
The Vancouver Courier by Kerry
Gold
[China-born environmentalist says many
Chinese immigrants to urbanized to care about conservation
…While his
current campaign focus is the illegal trade in bear and tiger parts, he says
he’ll get involved in any environmental issue…
1995-12-02-6
The Vancouver
Sun
by Nicholas Read
[Animal parts for sale, and it’s legal]
…
“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.”…
1995-12-06-3
Ming Pao Daily (Chinese),
Vancouver by Eric Chan
[Ma Seeu Sung spreads environmentalism
into Chinese community]
…’If
we don’t change our ways and drive the tiger to extinction, our reputation will
be forever mud,’ says Ma Seeu Sung…”
1995-12
Sing Tao Daily (Chinese), Vancouver
by H.N. Kwok
[Anthony Marr takes pay-cut to save
environment]
…When
asked why he made this change, he said simply, “I just find my present work
more meaningful.”…
1995-12-18 Chinatown
News by
Wanda Chow
[Chinese environmentalist campaigning to
change centuries-old tradition]
…
Perhaps because Marr is a Chinese person willing to speak out… he has had
plenty of media attention. The public’s reaction? One Maple Grove school
teacher recently said, “For years I’ve been waiting for someone like him to
step forward.”
1996-01-08-1
Times Colonist,
Victoria
by Malcolm Curtis
[Tiger, tiger, put it right]
…
“If major endangered species of the world – bear, elephant, tiger, rhino – become
extinct as a result of Chinese demand for their body parts, I would consider
that a very serious crime against nature,” Marr said in an interview…
1996-01-21-7 The
Vancouver Courier by
Kerry Gold
[Chinese activist fearless]
…
“My response is, I’ve got to be accountable first and foremost to myself, and
I’m not going to compromise myself (by worrying) about offending certain
people,” said Anthony Marr…
1996-01-28-7
The Vancouver Courier by Mrs.
V. Kennedy
[Animal torture justifies anger]
To
the editor: Your article on Anthony Marr was an eye-opener. Now I realize why
those who struggle for the ethical treatment of animals are so vehemently
angry…
1996-04-09
Ming Pao Daily News, Vancouver
by Eric Chan
[Federal wildlife trade law soon in
force]
…Ma
Seeu Sung hopes the new law will significantly empower Canadian law against the
international illegal endangered species trade…
1996-04-10-3
The Vancouver Echo by Mike Bell
[Asian community takes on animal parts
trade]
It
will take more than a little gall to stop the massive Chinese trade in animal
parts, but Anthony Marr has a feeling deep in his heart that he’s the one who
can make a difference…
1996-04-10-3
Associated Press
[Poaching surges for bear parts]
… “Given a choice between a bottle of
synthetic UDCA (Urso-deoxycholic Acid) and a real bear gall bladder, an
old-timer will choose the latter every time; it’s half medicine and half mystique.
It’s hard to fight superstition with a test tube,’ says Marr…
…
“If the Chinese really want to be modern, on par with the West, we have to do a
lot of soul searching,” he said…
1996-04-12-5
Sing Tao Daily, Vancouver
[Grizzly-bear-poaching penalty increased
to $25,000 max]
…Anthony
Marr says that the new penalty, though raised, is still too lenient. For
a criminal who trade in millions of dollars, a penalty of $25,000 is “less than
GST”…
1996-04-14-7
The Richmond News by Nevil Judd
[Anti-poaching activist disappointed with
response from local schools]
…
“These areas are the epicentre of Chinese activity,” said Marr… “Certainly, the
demand side of the equation rests squarely on the shoulders of Chinese,
Japanese and Korean cultures…”…
1996-04 Vancouver
Magazine by Shawn Blore
[Loaded for bear]
…
“Canada’s laws could use an aphrodisiac,” says Marr. “Where fighting endangered species trade is concerned, it is more
or less impotent.”…