Petting Tigers

This past weekend we were up in the Southern Oregon Coast and visited West Coast Game Park Safari. While we were visiting, Fiona and Stephanie got to have a petting session with their two new Bengal Tiger cubs, Kimbo and Titan, 4 weeks old each.

One rarely gets the chance to pet tigers, let alone tiger cubs. Not sure who was more thrilled: Steph or Fiona.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• West Coast Game Park Safari
• Bengal Tiger cubs
• Southern Oregon Coast
• petting zoos

[TheOtherLioyd]

@90Kirame And I won't even begin on all the fascinating things spiders do that we hardly ever see because we're so dedicated to killing them on sight...

[90Kirame]

@TheOtherLioyd Yep, I didn't <___<

[90Kirame]

@TheOtherLioyd Will do, although I'm pretty sure I won't like what I'll find... :/

[TheOtherLioyd]

@90Kirame Aye, these are all true points. Teaching fear without explanation is far from the way to enforce them, however. Just ask Google about shark finning.

[90Kirame]

@90Kirame Exhibiting cubs is WRONG in so many levels :/

When kids pet those small cubs, they might think it's actually a good idea to own one, which is not true. It's dangerous for both the animals and their "owners".

[90Kirame]

@TheOtherLioyd I know that. What I mean is that petting tiger cubs is so much more than just playing with the for 15 minutes. They're ripped from their mothers soon after their birth, which causes stress to both the mother tigers and the cubs. And where do these animals go when they grow up? They're sold to be pets or to make more money for their owners in small cages. They might be sold to circuses or they might even get killed when the public can't pet them anymore.

[TheOtherLioyd]

@90Kirame They're not killing machines. They're dangerous to handle because upscaled to tiger size, the little wounds you get from a pissed-off cat become something else entirely.

[90Kirame]

@TheOtherLioyd Tigers didn't become endangered because people feared them. People shot them for "sports". And I don't really understand what that has to do with this video. My point is that these animals are deadly. Exhibitors should NOT teach these kids to think that exotic animals are just cute and cuddly cubs. When people get these animals as pets, they're small and so very cute, but when they grow up, they become killing machines. That's bad for the animals, too.

[TheOtherLioyd]

@90Kirame Fearing tigers only led to endangering them by shooting them on sight. Sharks are being killed in horrible ways for the same reasons.

[90Kirame]

@TheOtherLioyd I don't get your point :P