Animal abuse in China...

[martrix]

I nearly smashed the TV when I saw this report last night.

I cant believe this sort of thing still goes on in 2007.

What do you think?

Sky News Video

Link to the article.

[Wongo]

Saw that on channel 9 last night. It was pretty disgusting.

[silentC]

The first one is a bit of a tricky one. Sure it's not necessary to feed them a live animal, and it's more about the way the animal is killed and the fact that it's done for entertainment and people are watching and getting a kick out of it that's offensive. If you slaughtered the animal humanely, chopped it up and fed it to the tigers, the end result is the same.

But that sort of thing goes on every day in the tiger's natural environment. Is this wrong because it's unnecessary, or because the reason it's happening is for entertainment and the real world situation, which is essentially the same thing, is right because it's for survival. But whose survival? The tiger, not the antelope or whatever. I guess I have the same feelings about it when I watch a tiger or a lion taking down it's prey on National Geographic. Pretty horrible for the prey but a fact of life.

As for the rest, if it's as they say it is, then it's pretty bad and something should be done about it.

[dazzler]

I spose while ever we are killing, raping and mutilating our own race all over the planet that this is hardly surprising.

[Waldo]

G'day Matrix,

You only saw a part of the story. It aired I think in full on SBS last week (I stand corrected though) the part you saw was part of a much larger picture to get Siberian Tigers back into the wild and breed.

Feeding them live animals is part of the process, as they show they can kill to eat they're brocken into breeding groups, these groups are then taken to a half way house in large fenced areas as best like those that they live in the wild, where they are monitored to see if they can survive with lesser contact from their handlers and to also see how they eat from the wild etc.

Certainly having tourists pay and give live animals like they were might'nt have been PC, but from the story I saw they need this as they don't get much funding from other bodies, so I suppose it's a means to an end.

The treatment of the ainamls in the zoos and the "tricks" the animals did is another story.

[martrix]

G'day Matrix,

You only saw a part of the story. It aired I think in full on SBS last week (I stand corrected though) the part you saw was part of a much larger picture to get Siberian Tigers back into the wild and breed.

Feeding them live animals is part of the process, as they show they can kill to eat they're brocken into breeding groups, these groups are then taken to a half way house in large fenced areas as best like those that they live in the wild, where they are monitored to see if they can survive with lesser contact from their handlers and to also see how they eat from the wild etc.

Certainly having tourists pay and give live animals like they were might'nt have been PC, but from the story I saw they need this as they don't get much funding from other bodies, so I suppose it's a means to an end.

The treatment of the ainamls in the zoos and the "tricks" the animals did is another story.

Waldo, do you really believe an overweight Tiger in captivity that is fed a live chicken jammed though a chute, or a completely defenseless domestic cow will learn how to hunt to live in the wild?

Did you see the whole documentary? I have looked back through 3 weeks of the SBS schedule and couldn't find it. I would be interested to see it.

IMHO there is no acceptable reason for what they are doing, and it should be the people that payed for this "privilege" that are tossed in for the entertainment. Nice way to boost the worlds view of your country with the Olympics coming up.

I am searching the net for info on this park and maybe an explanation from their point of view. Happy to ready any links anyone can find.

[Waldo]

G'day Matrix,

It was about a 1/4hr to 20 minute story if it wasn't SBS then ABC2. I'll try and find it for you. I didn't flinch when I saw the story on 9's late news as I'd already seen it in full.

Nor did it surprise me that a commercial channel aired what an animal rights group fed to it.

[Waldo]

G'day Matrix,

Here you go:

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/s1887621.htm

It was a story called "Dancing with Tigers" on Foreign Correspondent.

[martrix]

G'day Matrix,

Here you go:

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/s1887621.htm

It was a story called "Dancing with Tigers" on Foreign Correspondent.

Hi Waldo, I did come across that report while searching the net. There is only a few paragraphs about Harbin Wildlife Park and it says nothing about the breeding program and their plans to eventually release the tigers into the wild.

Here is a quote from Wiki:

"The Siberian Tiger is not very difficult to breed in captivity, but the possibility to release captive bred specimens into the wild is small. Conservation efforts that secure the wild population are therefore still of imperative importance. If a captive bred Siberian Tiger were to be released into the wild, it would lack the necessary hunting skills and starve to death.

Captive bred tigers can also approach humans and villages since they have learned to associate humans with feeding and lack the natural shyness of the wild tigers. In a worst-case scenario, the starving tigers could even become man-eaters. Since tigers must be taught how to hunt by their mothers when they are still cubs, a program that aimed to release captive bred Siberian Tigers into the wild would face great difficulties."

Just been reading that there is also abuse problems in the U.S.

"Think you're an animal lover? Would you pay $200 to brush a tiger's extremely lethal teeth? Or pay $450 to let a 600-pound grizzly bear pluck a marshmallow from your lips? These opportunities might be closer to you than you think. They might be right there in your or your neighbor's backyard.
Across America, lions and tigers and bears are kept not in zoos but in private homes as pets and put on display in mom-and-pop backyard businesses where the paying public is invited to get up close and personal."

From a report for www.bigcatrescue.org.

I'm done. You wont hear anymore from me on the subject, I don't know why I even brought it up.....humans will do anything for the almighty $.

[Waldo]

G'day Matrix,

No problems. I was hoping that there might be a video or something that you could watch seeing as it has aired already - maybe with a bit more digging it can be found.

The first and tenth paragraphs to the article and the 1st photo gloss over it all be it very breifly to what i wrote in my first reply.

I give very little belief to what I can read on the net, but when I see it on Foreign Correspondent - then I belive the intergrity of the story.

But that's me and may not be someone else and that doesn't change or alter the integrity of that person to the negative.

I only hope that the efforts of the Zoo arne't jepardised because of a few animal libs who shoot what they want and release to commercial networks for their own gains, not when there's only 600 Siberian Tigers or so left in the wild and they are at risk from poachers who want their gall bladers, bile and bones for herbal medicine. :sad: