Asian elephants in Burma are being poached at an alarming rate—all to meet soaringdemand for the animal’s skin in China, where it’s considered a potent traditional medicine.
“Elephant skins? Give me four hours, and I’ll get you anything from the hunters in the jungle,” a shopkeeper at a pharmacy in Kyaikto, a town in southeastern Burma (also known as Myanmar), according to a Sept. 11 article in the English-language newspaper The Myanmar Times.
