Elephants, Big Cats, Exotics / Films / Movies / Films & Videos / HUNTING / WILDLIFE

Documenting Asia’s Illegal Animal Trade

by Jennie Richards · Published April 7, 2020 · Updated April 10, 2020

“What is happening to the animals, is my story. That’s what I’m interested in.”

Photographer Patrick Brown had been living in Thailand for over 12 years that served as his launchpad for photographing the illegal black market trade in endangered animals in Southeast Asia and China. In the film, Brown travels to Guangzhou, China, close to the Hong Kong border, where he revisits the city for the culmination of a decade-long project photographing the wildlife trade in China for the book, “Trading To Extinction.”

Brown uses his photography to document how the planet’s most exotic, endangered and beautiful creatures are being hunted, trapped, sold, slaughtered and consumed to feed a global black market in wildlife products.

Film Length: 21 Minutes

Film Launch: 2014

More About The Film

Buy the book Trading to Extinction on Amazon.com

Support the book and find out more about Trading to Extinction on www.emphas.is / http://bit.ly/Trading_to_Extinction

More about Photographer Patrick Brown

About Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown has devoted himself to documenting critical issues around the world often ignored by the mainstream media. His groundbreaking project on the illegal trade in endangered animals won a World Press Photo Award in 2004 and a multimedia award from POYi in 2008. Continuing to work on the subject, his book “Trading to Extinction” was nominated in the 10 best photo documentary books of 2014 by AmericanPhoto.

Quotes from the Film

“The illegal animal trade is worth $52 billion dollars annually.”

“There are probably more Bengal tigers in Texas than there are in the Bay of Bengal.”

“I don’t think the trade has in any way dwindled at all, they are just smarter about hiding it. They know these things get out into the world beyond China, so they are bit more paranoid about people with cameras.”

“I never ask permission, I know I have a short window to get photos. I just take the photos. When they try to stop me from taking photos I keep taking photos. There’s a reason why they are trying to stop me from taking pictures, because they know they are doing something wrong.”

“One fish in this particular shop was worth $10,000. The shop keeper openly talked about how he smuggled the fish from Australia and another from the Philippines. They were smuggled in through Hong Kong.”

“These guys are untouchable. They are just not on the radar of law enforcement officers. It’s not important enough for them.”

“There are roughly 2.5 thousand tons of live animals that go through Heathrow Airport every day. So the customs guys are not experts at animals. There may be 30 crocodiles going through, and within that 30 – there could be 10 very, veryendangered crocodiles. They hide them.”

“Guangzhou, China is also famous for its wild game restaurants. One of the most common things you can do when you walk in is to choose your crocodile – “I want that crocodile to be chopped up and I want to have it for dinner.””

“The Chinese believe if you eat the Tiger, that you assume those characteristics of the Tiger, you become more virile, etc.”

“We eent to Safari World outside of Guangzhou with animals in a zoo. But the animals are prisoners. Zoos make a lot of money, they are big money-earners. Some zoos are legitimate and some are not. The majority of zoos in this part of the world are not so legitimate.”

“We visited The White Tiger restaurant, where you can sit down and watch these White Tigers. Inside this institution it supposedly has 50% of the entire White Tiger population of the world, right here.”

“What is happening to the animals, is my story. That’s what I’m interested in.”

“We went to the Guangzhou Medicine Market where different creatures are for sale, and parts of different creatures.”

“What drives these industries is naivete and greed. Naivety in the sense of lack of education about the health benefits, what they think they are – and deep greed.”

“Rhino Horn is soaked in Viagra, so it works because it’s soaked in Viagra.”

“A few hundred years ago, just the immediate family that attended a wedding would have Shark Fin soup. But now wedding parties have grown to 300-400 people all having Shark Fin soup. There are three fins per one shark, so it’s just a staggering amount of sharks that were killed and died to supply their appetite. It doesn’t even taste of anything.”

“At the Medicine Market in Guangzhou, some men were trying to sell me Bear Bile products. He wanted $1000 dollars for basically a very small amount of bear bile.”