fuckyeahanimalsanctuaries!

veganatalie:

fuckyeahbigcats:

I’m sure you’ve seen the images of a tiger nursing piglets that has been floating around the internet for years. The usual accompanying story involves a distraught tigress adopting the pigs at some nameless zoo in California.

The photos were actually taken at Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Thailand, where this kind of inter-species mingling is in fact a bizarre tourist attraction.

Other “attractions” at the Srirarcha Tiger Zoo include having your photo taken with a declawed tiger cub, orangutans dressed in human clothing, or a hatchling crocodile straight from the egg. There are also circus style shows of the most archaic and appalling kind - those involving tigers jumping through flaming hoops or elephants walking a tightrope.

To support this absurdity is to also support the illegal wildlife trade  - as the tigers here are commercially bred in huge quantities for export to China, where demand for their body parts remains high.

• The Animal Welfare Institute’s review - “All of the animals awaited their turn to perform in a gated tunnel, keepers constantly poking them with a steel pole through the iron mesh. The animals in the show were smacked in the face with the pole fairly regularly and most seemed to have drastic weakness in their hind legs. It was a painful display to watch.”

• Read the snopes entry. 

• The Daily Mail debunks the story.

• Read a detailed visitor’s review (lots of photos).

• Press release from the Born Free Foundation regarding photo opportunities with mutilated, drugged and restrained wild animals.

Sigh. Y’all been had as usual. It’s amazing how a photo that appears to be adorably innocent can have a completely different (and enraging) story behind it. Just another example of how people can dishonestly skew our views of something that is actually quite horrible.

CRUSH CAPTIVITY! 

(via humoftrees)