Last night I watched Louis Theroux: Americas Most Dangerous Pets and I'm not suprised to say some of the things I saw were truly horrifc. Cute bear cubs frantically pacing in a tiny cage, dangerous chimps playing with people on garden swings and huge tigers parading around on a chain.
Louis explored a so called 'exotic animal sanctuary' where tiger cubs were removed from their parents and bottle fed for the owners own amusement. In another enclosure a bear and tiger unnaturally cuddle together. The young animals are sent off to a roadside zoo where they spend all day exposed to paying customers, prodding and poking them, posing for photos.
So what excuse do these people have for keeping animals in this way.... conservation and education. How can a bear and tiger cub housed together provide education? Its unnatural and those animals will never behave normally. How is breeding a liger in any way normal? It defies normal evolution and just pushes the boundaries as what we as humans can do. The keeper explained that breeding these animals was a way of maintaining captive stock for future release....yet how would a tame tiger be able to hunt for itself?
This is truly disgusting and makes me ashamed to call myself human. The power we have we completely abuse. This is not conservation. These inbred animals will never be able to have a real life. Its all for our own cruel pleasure.
So just remember if you see a cute bear cub or tiger cub before you fork out to have your photo taken with it, think about the horrific life it leads to enteratain you. Would you want your baby stuffed into a cage all day?
If you missed the program make sure you check it out online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016yklh
