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I meant to reply to this thread earlier but didn't have time.
I love the photo! You guys are so lucky!!!:)
I looked at the link you posted and noticed that they had lots of different animals.
Did you see any of their other big cats? I would love to see the black leopard.:)
Oh My Gosh, What a great picture! Like everyone else I am so jealous! I almost missed this thread. I'm so glad I caught it. You guys look fantastic!
Robin :)
We did that while in south Carolina and I have to say that was one of teh cooliest things I've ever done! Your pic look cute!
(I'm the one holding the sweeties head)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...5/f9c9647e.jpg
Ashley
Oh my Kimmy that is SO incredibly adorable!!! What a photo to treasure forever and remember that moment and how it felt to hold that BEAUTIFUL tiger cub. What a Kodak moment and the picture is just wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing!
I could never support these traveling "zoos" and my reasons may surprise you, so please hear me out. As an occasional volunteer at a big cats rescue (related thread: http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...threadid=25368) I’ve had my eyes opened to the horrors behind something as seemingly innocent as taking a picture with a baby tiger.
I will leave it to the experts to describe some of the atrocities which are part of the commercial exploitation of big cats. The experts in this case are the real rescue organizations!
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/FAQ.htmQuote:
Every year the animal exhibits want to have a cute little cub on display for the paying public, but next year where does that cub go? Alan Green's book, Animal Underworld tells you the sad truth. You will always be told that it went to another zoo, but they are all breeding like crazy and none of them wants the adults from each previous year, so they end up in canned hunts and at auctions to anyone with $100.00 in their pocket and then they are bred like beagles for the "pet" trade.
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/FAQ.htmQuote:
These sort of photo opportunities are what causes life times of suffering for the animals and I would strongly urge you to learn more about how these things work before adding to the problem. You probably love the big cats and would not knowingly do something to hurt them. In the State of Florida, it is legal for a person to touch a great cat (lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar) until they are 40 pounds. Many people breed these cats just for that market. They produce lots of cute little cubs for people to have their pictures made with. To keep them under 40 pounds, as long as possible, they starve them, deprive them of the calcium they need to grow strong (thus heavy) bones and then when the cub passes it's 40 pound limit, they are dumped at auctions where they are bought by people who offer canned hunts (illegally in the case of the tiger, leopard and jag, but done all the same). The other options for these cats are that unscrupulous people who want to make money in the photo opp business will buy them and breed them like rabbits, doing the same thing over and over. They typically call themselves sanctuaries and say that they are breeding for conservation efforts, but the truth is that virtually none of them really are. (Ask to see the proof of signed governmental contracts for release and reintroduction.) If you don't provide the demand for this market, then it will go away.
More information: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/animal_abuse.htm
I’m sorry if this comes across as an attack, but I just CANNOT leave this unsaid. I hope you can understand.
The place where I took mine (I'll try to find the name) If I rember correctly was a big cat rescue. They also didn't travel and they had a large farm not to far away that the cats went to at night.
http://www.tigers-animal-actors.com/
There is there web page.
While we were there soemone was talking about how tigers numbers were going down in the wild and educating the people about the tigers.
You should read this
http://www.tigers-animal-actors.com/index2.html
Ashley