How zoo’s tigers were shot for the taxidermist

Lingering death of two caged animals killed so that they could be skinned and stuffed
By Daniel Foggo
See the videos: 1. Zoo tigers are shot for their skins. It is unclear whether they are being killed by Jean-Pierre Gerard, a Belgian taxidermist, or by one of his associates. Warning: shows prolonged sequences of animals suffering

2. One of the shot tigers is skinned by Gerard

A TAXIDERMIST exposed for buying healthy exotic animals from zoos in order to stuff them has been filmed taking part in the brutal slaughter of two caged tigers for their skins.

Jean-Pierre Gerard, who last month offered undercover Sunday Times reporters the pelts of young zoo tigers for £3,000 each, was present while two further specimens from a German zoo were peppered with bullets.

Video footage shows the animals suffering a lingering death as they were repeatedly and inexpertly shot over more than 20 minutes. Afterwards Gerard is shown skinning the animals with a view to their being stuffed. He also confessed on camera to having shot the animals himself, although he subsequently insisted to The Sunday Times that his “friend”, who he would not identify, had actually pulled the trigger.

Gerard has fuelled his lucrative taxidermy business buying surplus animals from zoos across Europe. The footage now suggests that he has also been involved in the death of unwanted zoo animals as well as stuffing them.

Rare captive species are routinely being overbred by zoos, which use cubs to attract visitors in the peak summer season. Later in the year “excess” animals are killed and their skins sold to Gerard for no other reason than the fact that the zoos no longer have any room for them.

Belgian police said this weekend they would like to view the footage and Bart Staes, a Belgian MEP, said he would table questions in the European parliament this week.

The video raises new questions over the provenance of the tiger skins offered for sale to undercover reporters last month. When Gerard offered the skins of two young female tigers for £6,000, he altered official Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) certificates.

He added his name to the certificates, to reassure would-be buyers that he was entitled to sell them. Gerard had bought them from a Belgian safari park, Monde Sauvage.

A Cites document for one of the tigers states that it was actually sold to Gerard when it was still alive, although he insisted yesterday that the animal was dead when he received it. He said he had not examined its certificate properly and therefore did not notice the discrepancy.

The true fate of that tiger is unclear, however. Joseph Renson, the director of Monde Sauvage, at first said the 18-month-old animal had died of old age. He later claimed it had died of natural causes.

The International Species Information System database records that it was “euthanased” in February 2007. Yet in April, Monde Sauvage was issued with the Cites permit stating that it was still alive.

The footage of tigers being shot, which was filmed in 1994 by German television, did not show Gerard’s face or use his name.

But last night he admitted being present when the animals were shot at an address near Antwerp. He described the botched killings as a “catastrophe” that had upset him. Gerard said “a friend” had shot the zoo tigers. The taxidermist admitted he had skinned them but insisted he had been “set up” by the German journalists.

“I thought the tigers were going to be dead already when they were delivered,” he said. Gerard added that he had believed he was going to be given one of the pelts in return for skinning both tigers.

Following the shooting, Gerard admitted on camera that he had shot them himself, but he retracted this in speaking to The Sunday Times, saying that he had been pressured into confessing. “I have never killed any animal for my business,” he said.

However, the producer of the programme, Stefan Eckart, insisted Gerard had indeed shot the tigers himself.

Questions have also been raised about Gerard’s inadvertent role in the fate of a chimpanzee bearing the name of one of the most popular and high-profile residents of a British zoo.

Documents show that Gerard received a chimpanzee with the details of “Rodney”, a long-standing resident of Windsor Safari Park, and offered its skin and skeleton for sale in 2002.

In fact the animal was probably caught in Africa and given Rodney’s details in order to make its purchase appear legal.

The real Rodney lived out his later life at the Monkey World primate rescue centre in Dorset, where he was a featured chimp in the long-running television series Monkey Business. He died in 2005 at the age of 37.

Alison Cronin, who runs Monkey World, said: “This is exactly how wild animals are smuggled, by using the real details of existing captive animals to get them ‘into the system’. It is absolutely appalling that any chimpanzee has ended its days as a trophy for someone who wants a stuffed animal. It shows how low some people can sink.”

Additional reporting: Nicola Smith