R.I.P Snorkel the Tiger ...

As a cub, Snorkel spent his early years forced to pose as a prop with people for their photos. Then he ended up caged for years at a family circus.Luckily, he found a true safe haven at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, FL. Watch as he finally enjoys a taste of the wild and, for the first time in his life, was able to run...still much less than he truly deserves.

*Snorkel passed away on 3-12-10, we were told that he was born in 1989 not 1996 (typo on the video) making him around 21 years old!

Help WWF, The International Tiger Coalition and Big Cat Rescue tighten regulations to protect captive tigers in the U.S and prevent the increased demand for tiger products that put wild populations at risk.

Sign WWF's petition to Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking them to use their authority to close existing loopholes in the permitting and monitoring of captive tigers in the U.S.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: http://bit.ly/aC1IFN

At present, there is currently no way to determine how many captive tigers are in the U.S., where they are, who owns them, or what happens to them when they die. This makes them an easy target for black market sales, stimulating demand for tiger products and threatening wild populations by putting them at increased risk of poaching. Please sign the petition, our goal is to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: http://bit.ly/aC1IFN

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Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Tiger
• snorkel
• died
• sad
• funny
• cool
• cats
• cute
• running
• chasing
• pumpkins
• vs
• chuff
• attack
• home
• circus
• abused
• caged
• life
• rescued
• rescue
• big
• liger
• lion
• cub
• kitten
• family
• rip
• swimming
• splashing

[GrandNecro]

Do you ever let snorkel play with with the other cats?

[BigCatRescue]

@GrandNecro No, all cats are solitary by nature except for lions, so unless we rescue animals that were already living together or we can introduce cats at a young age we keep all our cats separate. Introducing Snorkel to another mature tiger would have resulted in a fight.

[Lightblinder]

thats so sad....you can actually see he suffered a lot during his life....

out of curiosity, what do you do with the cats when they die?

[BigCatRescue]

@Lightblinder Yes he did, but for the last 5 years he had the best life possible in captivity and for that we're thankful :) The cats are buried at the sanctuary...

[BigCatRescue]

@Malleryfrost Yes, he was actually born in 1989 (typo at start of the video) so he was around 21 years old when he died, we rescued him in 2005 so he had five happy years at the end to make up for all the bad in his early life :)

[AskMazam]

This made me cry :'( RIP Snorkel <3

[SaintWarfare]

this is so sad but at least he lived a fun life with a real lake i'll miss you snorkel (crying)

[KoolKid6500]

When an animal dies, it's ten times sadder than when a human dies. It's clear that Snorkel lived a hard life, but I hope Big Cat Rescue has made his life a bit happier and easier! R.I.P

[Caviar4Dinner]

I shed many tears for Snorkel. His loneliness was almost speaking thru the screen.

[ShanghaiTigerlily]

Poor Snorkel, I almost felt this incredible urge to pet him and take his pain away.

R.I.P., Snorkel.

[heptafanes]

How sad!

[dubinek88]

Thanks for making last few years of his life awesome, you can see in video how happy he was :)

[ACovergirlStory]

Videos like this makes tears run down my cheeks. What a sweetheart he looks like =) RIP snorkel..

[Cydgr8]

Awww