Cuddle a Tiger, Save a Species?

Today I am posting a letter I wrote to a reporter who did a story about some elementary school children adopting a tiger from Tiger World, in an effort to educate the children and lend a hand to conserving an endangered species. Their adopted tiger was actually brought into their classroom, and several of the children commented that they would like to take the tiger home with them. Here is what I wrote:

Dear Chris,

I read with great interest your piece about Moss Hill Elementary adopting a tiger from Tiger World. While I appreciate the efforts of anyone, especially school children, to save endangered species, I must say that my heart was not warmed by the comments of some of the children that they would like to take the tiger home with them. To me, this represents a fundamental cultural change in the way we perceive nature that is not at all cute or sweet, but rather alarming. What exactly are we teaching them?

When I was growing up, it was my father who instilled in me a respect for nature - I used to think the National Geographic specials that he watched all weekend were boring. I never realized the influence he was having in my life, but I can say one thing for sure - I never, ever wanted to take a tiger home with me, cub or not. I understood and respected their power, and I knew that they had a place, and that place was not at home with me, or in anyone else's home for that matter.

This is the reason that I have been appalled over the last few years to discover the presence and magnitude of the exotic animal trade in our country and worldwide, a trade in which people are actually duped into believing that a tiger (or any other wild animal) can make a good pet. What I have learned is that there is a cycle of wild animals being moved around, from this place to that, through dozens of different people's hands, and yet never, ever finding their way back home, in spite of all the happy promises from so-called sanctuaries that all of their efforts are for conservation or education. What happens in truth is that the animals are viewed as a commodity, and their needs are often neglected or they are just downright abused. They are taken from their mothers, dragged around to malls, fairs, and carnivals, posed for photo ops, and thrown in a cage and forgotten when they aren't working. They are then bred to bring in a new generation and sold off or killed when they are spent. In short, just like puppies, they are being "milled."

But do we really have to be told about all this abuse to understand how utterly unnatural all of this is to a wild animal? Have you ever seen anyone come back with pictures from an African Safari, arm-in-arm with a wild lion? What does it take for us to understand that they can only be engaging in such things against their wills? Anyone who has seen the conditions that many of these animals live in usually walks away appalled, horrified, and heartbroken, and resolves that they will have none of it. They will not support anyone or anything who is lending a hand to keeping this cycle in motion. Any person or organization who claims to love and want to conserve animals should be shouting from the rooftops that this madness must stop, and they certainly would not be adding to the cycle by continuing to breed more animals or by obtaining them from those who do breed them. Some so-called sanctuaries may indeed care for their animals well, but if they breed animals or buy cubs from those who do, they are keeping this trade going and are being dishonest with themselves, with one another, and with the public.

I am not trying to question the honest desire of schoolchildren to save endangered species, nor am I questioning the integrity of the teachers who so faithfully guide them. I am questioning the validity of anything that suggests to the next generation that a tiger is something that we can, or should even want to, take home with us. I am also questioning the legitimacy of the idea that the relentless breeding (and consequent buying, selling, and trading) of exotic animals will save them from extinction. There are now more tigers living in residential basements and backyards than there are living in the wild, and yet the news from their native habitats repeats the same tired knell - for the wild tiger, it's five minutes to midnight.

If we really want to help our kids help animals, then we must ask ourselves some tough questions. Where does a tiger really belong? There is really only one answer - in the wild. And what is the connection between captive breeding and conservation? In almost all cases, there just isn't one. The subspecies' bloodlines have been so thoroughly mixed (to get the resulting characteristics that humans want) that they no longer have any connection to their respective habitats - they are virtually unreleasable. They will never see the wild lands from which their forebears were taken.

I know most news stories are not intended to be exposes, but must we confuse the next generation with these mixed messages? They've got their work cut out for them as it is; if we want them to have any hope of solving the looming crises that they will inherit from us, the truth is a weapon they will not long survive without.

Please help true conservation efforts by telling the truth about wild animals. Tigers belong in the wild, not in photo shoots, not on leashes, not in our yards, and not in our classrooms. What they need is protected wild lands - and for us to get out of their way.

Sincerely,
Sharyn Beach

Sanctuary

Today I am posting a poem I wrote for Big Cat Rescue, a sanctuary dedicated to providing a permanent place for abused and unwanted exotic cats, mostly cast offs from the exotic pet trade. I dedicate it to Nikita the lioness, pictured above, who came to Big Cat Rescue after police found her chained to a wall in a crack house in Tennessee. I dedicate it with the tenacious hope that human beings will stop rationalizing, that we will wake up and realize that making living creatures into a commodity, even if we treat them well, is not saving them from extinction. It is not saving them from anything but their own freedom and dignity. For Nikita and so many like her, having been made into little more than slaves, sanctuary is the best we can give to them. The best we can give to their kind is to give them the space to be who they are, in their own habitat. A cage is not a home.

Sanctuary

Abandoned, forgotten, neglected, abused
Forsaken, dismissed, mistreated, misused

The worthy, the beautiful, the graceful, the tall
The courageous, the cunning, the secretive, the small

Find refuge and comfort and safety herein
And voices who shout the unspoken within

In sanctuary finding they are never alone
Until hands warm and tender, point the way home

Sharyn Beach