Letters to the Editor
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On the contrary, I think there should be Siberian Tiger pits all over the country
There are lots of people I believe would make suitable meals for the great beasts, and combining the feeding with a reality show "Feed the Tigers" would insure top care for these beautiful animals.
Let's start with Glenn Beck, and Bill O'Rielly and Rush Limbaugh, maybe throw in(literally) a lefty or two to balance the tiger's diets. Ralph Nader comes to mind, but hurry, before he decides to jump into the 2008 presidential race. Throw in Glenn Greenwald too. He's worthless.
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Thin the herd
Let them roam the halls of congress and the white house.
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Seriously though
No animal belongs in a zoo. Its like prison except they're all innocent.
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a territory in which to hunt
what is the problem with giving tigers enough space to hunt wild game? the wild animal park near San Diego approximates a realistic environment, at least, although allowing the cats to stalk their natural prey would be a big plus. the problem from a commercial point of view, (bad news boss, you know that new wildebeast we purchased last month) is that the animals tend to prefer privacy, remain quiet during the day, and many have nocturnal habits. to capture some of this, the park allows sleepovers, at least you can sometimes hear the animals, and feel some of the excitement of going on safari, which is what this is all about.
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Cats
Zookeepers also tell us that tigers are cats, happy just to eat and sleep.
As I read this, my adult cat was diving at the papers on my kitchen table, pushing them off the table, and chasing after them. I try to get them back -- I'm trying to work here -- but every time I move a document, she tackles it. Every evening she has hyper spells where she gallops through the apartment and leaps over furniture. She loves chasing toy mice, and has ripped a few to shreds.
All cats, even small domestic cats, need active play time, whether it's outdoors with nature or indoors with toys and human interaction. A house cat can run and jump in a human sized dwelling, but a tiger needs much more space to adequately exercise. When I see how much my little cat enjoys running around, it makes me so sad that some tiger don't even have enough space to run at full speed.
If we truly cared about the tigers in captivity, we would enclose large protected areas where tigers could run and jump, where they are free to roam away from gawking tourists and do what tigers do. An enrichment program is better than nothing, but tigers are not happy when they don't have enough space to run.
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Better late than never?
The San Francisco Zoo has been dithering about animal enrichment for years. Maybe they'll get serious about it now, after one of their animals went postal. Better late than never, right?
Meanwhile, right across the San Francisco Bay, the tiny Oakland Zoo seems to have pursued a policy of expanding open space instead of expanding animal exhibits. While it makes the experience of visiting seem a little pathetic on paper, the lion enclosure is basically simply an extended enclosed area of natural hillside and provided one of the most breathtaking experiences I've ever had — a pride of lions scampering headlong after each other through the woods, roaring in play, within arm's length of me. If I needed any convincing of the value of open space captivity, I was sold.
That said, Susan McCarthy makes an interesting analogy:
But tigers in most zoos are like people spending their lives locked in an empty living room.
I don't know whom Susan McCarthy knows or socializes with, but very few of the humans I know live in natural hominid habitats — open grassland, sun-drenched veldt, what have you. Nor do we generally live in trees, fond as we may remain of having them around.
In point of fact, a large number of humans and a huge proportion of the ones that call themselves Americans live in high-density urbanizations — in homes or apartments that consist, basically, of a locked room — or a series of empty rooms, if you're a more mature specimen — with some furniture and maybe a few toys strewn around.
(And don't even start with office cubicles.)
So while preserving and even expanding what natural habitats remain is vital, we are already basically obliging all the world's creatures to urbanize. Some (like raccoons and dogs) do well without our intervention, and others (like tigers) are going to need us to find ways that they can live alongside us. In a world of ubiquitous human presence, there is no other way to survive.
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Tiger Health
Tigers are a barometer of the earths' health. Without shrinking the population or stopping the annihilation of their habitat they are doomed. 50 square mile enclosures are not practical.
Decisions about our stewardship of gaia and the tiger are remarkably similar aren't they?
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One solution...
The Performing Animal Welfare Society and their ARK2000 habitat have provided sanctuary for numerous tigers in a safe, controlled environment. It may not be the perfect solution for tigers, but it's as close to their natural habitat as we're going to get in the U.S.
See http://www.pawsweb.org for more info.
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A Look At The Future
Judging by the changes that are taking place in the world, we'll be living in a dirty, crowded place where humans have pushed the natural habitats of wild animals into extinction.
Modern medicine is continuously extending the lifespan of our species. More and more open space falls to development.
The net result will be the overpopulation and pollution of the planet by humans, and Earth will suffer and eventually be unable to support life as we know it.
There is no solution to this other than meaningful population control and we all know that will not happen.
So say goodbye to the tigers, the elephants, the lions, the rain forests, and eventually life in the oceans.
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Humans are very special animals
The prey trying to protect the predator. You won't see any of the other animals that tigers like to eat showing this much concern for their welfare.
Hooray for us!