A LEADING international conservationist from Dorset has criticised China's animal welfare record following allegations undercover British journalists were served tiger meat.

ITN reporters visited Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain farm in Guilin in February and sent some of the meat they were offered to a Chinese laboratory, where DNA tests confirmed it was tiger meat.

The report comes at the start of what is expected to be a heated debate on tiger conservation at a meeting of the 171-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Poole-based animal rights campaigner and conservationist Adam Murry, whose charity, the Murry Foundation, has just started work on a 30-acre tiger and wildlife rehabilitation and release sanctuary in Nepal, said: "It's disgusting, using exotic and endangered animals for eating.

"In my view, at the current rate we won't have anymore tigers left in the wild within 18 months. There are already more in captivity than in the wild and their eco-systems are dwindling rapidly.

"It is estimated that one-and-a-half tigers are being killed a day. Our children simply won't be able to see these animals in the wild, because there won't be any left."

Cites has banned international trade in tiger and tiger parts, which are historically popular in Chinese cuisine and medicine, but China does allow the unlimited private breeding of tigers.

Conservationists fear that the Chinese authorities are being pushed by wealthy investors in tiger farms to end the 14-year domestic ban on tiger product sales.

Mr Murry told how putting tigers, who have territories stretching across thousands of hectares in the wild, in enclosures is like putting "humans in under-stair cupboards."

He added that he plans to send a team to China within the next few months to campaign for domestic animal welfare rights.

For more information about The Murry Foundation go to themurryfoundation.com.