No Happy Ending for Captive Tigers
The lives of the tigers in Universal Pictures' Two Brothers are portrayed the way these big cats are meant to live-roaming through territories stretching through hundreds of miles of forests and grasslands. However, this idyllic setting is a far cry from the experience of thousands of privately owned tigers and other big cats, who pay a hefty price for our growing fascination with these awesome animals.
The Dark Side of Big Cats' Popularity
In recent years, the exploding demand for captive tigers by status seekers and conservation con artists has been readily met by breeders selling tigers in classified ads and on the Internet. Obtaining a tiger cub is often as easy as shelling out the cash. In the wild, tiger cubs like those in Two Brothers stay with their mothers for three years. But at tiger-breeding mills, cubs are typically pulled from their mothers when they are just days old. Still nursing, the fragile infants are then sold as "pets" and relegated to windowless basements or makeshift backyard cages or carted around the country by traveling zoos.
Tigers: America's Latest Homeless "Pet"
Although tiger cubs may be cute and seemingly cuddly, as seen in the movie, adult tigers are deadly and suffer immensely in captivity, where they are deprived of the ability to follow their natural instincts to roam. They are deeply affected by the lack of freedom, exercise, and stimulation. Many demonstrate neurotic behaviors, such as pacing, and show little interest in anything.
An Oxford University study published in October 2003 that covered four decades of observation of animals in captivity and in the wild found that wide-ranging carnivores such as tigers and other big cats "show the most evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction in captivity."
A Dead-End Street
When cubs become too large to manage, they often end up in dilapidated roadside zoos, in the possession of tiger breeders who supply the pet trade and do nothing to help endangered tigers in their natural habitat, or being shot on "canned hunting" ranches. Since tigers are worth more dead than alive, some are killed illegally and their skin, bones, flesh, and organs are sold on the black market.
The lives of the tigers in Universal Pictures' Two Brothers are portrayed the way these big cats are meant to live-roaming through territories stretching through hundreds of miles of forests and grasslands. However, this idyllic setting is a far cry from the experience of thousands of privately owned tigers and other big cats, who pay a hefty price for our growing fascination with these awesome animals.
The Dark Side of Big Cats' Popularity
In recent years, the exploding demand for captive tigers by status seekers and conservation con artists has been readily met by breeders selling tigers in classified ads and on the Internet. Obtaining a tiger cub is often as easy as shelling out the cash. In the wild, tiger cubs like those in Two Brothers stay with their mothers for three years. But at tiger-breeding mills, cubs are typically pulled from their mothers when they are just days old. Still nursing, the fragile infants are then sold as "pets" and relegated to windowless basements or makeshift backyard cages or carted around the country by traveling zoos.
Tigers: America's Latest Homeless "Pet"
Although tiger cubs may be cute and seemingly cuddly, as seen in the movie, adult tigers are deadly and suffer immensely in captivity, where they are deprived of the ability to follow their natural instincts to roam. They are deeply affected by the lack of freedom, exercise, and stimulation. Many demonstrate neurotic behaviors, such as pacing, and show little interest in anything.
An Oxford University study published in October 2003 that covered four decades of observation of animals in captivity and in the wild found that wide-ranging carnivores such as tigers and other big cats "show the most evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction in captivity."
A Dead-End Street
When cubs become too large to manage, they often end up in dilapidated roadside zoos, in the possession of tiger breeders who supply the pet trade and do nothing to help endangered tigers in their natural habitat, or being shot on "canned hunting" ranches. Since tigers are worth more dead than alive, some are killed illegally and their skin, bones, flesh, and organs are sold on the black market.
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Tiger's Eye Productions |
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