The demand for blood-red jade is huge in China, produced in the snow covered plateau of Tibet.
Due to its rarity and price antique dealers in China are using ordinary jade to stuff into the living body of sheep, for three years the jade is left inside the sheep to soak in the animals blood, after three years the jade is removed and has obtained the exact blood-red colour jade buyers are desperate to buy.
These cruel methods are making unscrupulous antique dealers rich in China but are damaging the antiques market according to honest antique dealers in China.
The implanted jade causes massive discomfort to the animals, the sheep are kept in poor conditions and infection and loss of life is common. After the jade has been implanted into the sheep for three years it is then simply cut out and the animal is left to bleed to death.
Genuine blood jade from ancient tombs was formed by oxidizing and the decomposing of the iron elements in the tomb and by absorbing the red iron ions, and the veins in the blood jade were only due to the original texture of the jade.
