#pet tiger

[elfhelmet]

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I had an albino pet tiger whose name was Indiana Joe... The tiger was a girl.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

As you might have seen in the news yesterday (8/19/22), another pet tiger was found in Texas - this time in the home of a Dallas rapper. So, of course, all of the “thousands of pet tigers in Texas” myths are popping back up again and getting remasticated on the bird app.

I’m doing a couple of threads on Twitter about it today, because there were a couple of aspects of the reporting from major outlets I just can’t not fact-check. Like the one in the linked tweet, where a major Houston newspaper got the state’s dangerous animal ownership law wrong. I’m keeping my posts about the topic on Twitter rather than cross-posting to Tumblr intentionally: I’m hoping with enough attention they might correct the misinformation they’re spreading.

[gypsyastronaut]

[emgoeshard]

Making it.

[orcinus-ocean]

Just finished Tiger King...

...episode 7 (there’s another one right?), and I’m gonna write my fresh thoughts.

90+% of the entire thing was of course about Joe-Jeff-Carole-Antle-whatever craziness, and I’m not gonna get into what I think about that (exceptCarolekilledherhusband), but about the very last part of episode 7, where they actually talked about the animals, and their (questionable) welfare.

There were old clips of Joe where he spoke of how the animals didn’t belong in Oklahoma, and that people needed to “stop breeding them”. Don’t know what that was about, but I think it’s pretty clear that his attitude changed, and it’s not about the animals for any of these people.

Not for Joe, not for Jeff, not for Antle, and not for Carole. It’s all about them as cult figures, and the money.

Joe admitted to shooting five tigers. He says he “euthanized them”. That’s really not dug deeper into. What was the motivation? The circumstances? Did he kill healthy animals for the heck of it? Or were they really sick or injured? Why were they sick or injured?

Is it not legal to kill your own animal, even an exotic or endangered one? Say if you have (no idea what happened in this case, I’m painting up fiction now, as an example) a tiger or [insert exotic] which fell and broke its leg horribly, bones are sticking out, the animal is screaming and it’s obvious no surgery can fix it.

Do you then have to apply for a permit to put it down? Wait for a vet to come there, tranq it and euthanize it with a lethal injection? That can’t be right. It has to be legal for you to shoot the poor thing.

And furthermore, last I checked, “generic tigers” aren’t endangered. They don’t require the same permits as if you have, say, a pure Bengal tiger. Generic tigers are under different legislation. Can someone explain this further? How is it illegal to kill your own animal for whatever reason (unless there is evidence of undue suffering, which would make the crime “animal cruelty”, not “animal killing”), and were they generic tigers or not?

How is it illegal to sell tiger cubs? Was it just done without paperwork? Crossing state borders without permits? (I don’t know what’s required in tiger trade, but I know people still trade tigers legally.)

He admitted to depriving his chimps of being chimps. That they had sat in “cages next to each other for ten years”, and when he gave them away and they were let loose in a large enclosure, they immediately went and hugged each other.

Yeah, good that he admits to poor care and losing sight of the animals’ welfare. But that does not justify the conclusion I think many will make, that I think the film might have been implying - that because Joe mistreated his animals in some way - that means only sanctuaries should have them, or they should be in the wild. It was not overt, but I think that might have been the message.

One poor zoo does not make all zoos poor, just as one poor pet owner/breeder/whathaveyou (can be applied to any topic, not just animals) does not make them all bad, and does not make the thing itself wrong.

Zoos are now reminding people on social media that “we are not like them, we are REAL, accredited zoos! Bla bla AZA self-congratulation bla bla”, and I take time to remind them that there are also hundreds of responsible and caring PRIVATE OWNERS of big cats, who are not lunatics, crackpots, perverts, animal abusers or criminals.

And at the very end, the film faded out with a statement I’m incredibly sick of. They say there are “5000-10 000 tigers in America”.

That is a big, fat lie.

It’s an urban legend that keeps sweeping the internet. Everyone says it, everyone knows it, but the sources are just loose statements made by animal rights organizations, and exact numbers change every time you ask.

The Feline Conservation Federation made a thorough check of the real numbers some years ago, and came up with about ~2800 tigers in America.

The latest numbers from the WWF and Gobal Tiger Forum (2016) said that there were ~3900 tigers in the wild.

There are many species that are far more numerous in captivity than in the wild, but the tiger is the only one people keep repeating, because it’s “oh, shock and horror, not the tiger”. But there are not more tigers in the USA than in the wild. And even if there were, those tigers are not “missing” from the wild. They weren’t “stolen”. They are the ark.

The higher numbers, the better. Personally, I’d be thrilled if there were 10 000 tigers in America, as long as they’re being cared for and managed responsibly. That would mean the tiger is not as threatened as we thought.

But when people hear the urban legend “more tigers in American backyards than in the wild”, they think the tigers in America are the problem, not the lack of tigers in the wild, the poaching and habitat destruction.

This lie of “10 000 tigers in America” or “3000 tigers in Texas” was created by animal rights activists to fill people with revulsion and want to create bans on tigers. It is completely ludicrous, as the breeding and in-country trade of an endangered species should be made EASIER, not harder, if we wish to save it.

The animal rights people of course, don’t want to save it, as they hate captive breeding no matter what, and will fight it with all they have, survival of the species be damned.

That is why the “Big Cat Public Safety Act” is anti-tiger, anti-lion, anti all big cats and their survival into the future.

On this topic, I recommend the documentary American Tiger, and my article on tiger conservation.

[pro-exotics]

Anti-exotics logic.

Same situation, only the former animal gets stared on by thousands of strangers and has to be sedated to be touched, while the latter gets a close, one-on-one relationship with the humans who raised it.

[howdysinners]

How would the UF and SF bros react to finding out that their S/O has a legit pet tiger? It's perfectly tame and super cuddly with people. How would they react to while they are babysitting it, it protectively lays on top of them (and doesn't let them up) and keeps licking their face until their S/O returns.

The s/o is legit Jasmine from Aladdin xDSorry it took a little while, but enjoy!

UF!Sans/Red:Red was super surprised when you told him about your… unusual pet. At first, he thought it was super freakin’ awesome and that he would be completely chill about your large house cat. Oh how wrong he was. No matter how tame and cuddly your tiger is at first, Red flipped out and was more scared than he liked to admit. After a while, he grew used to it and they became pretty good buddies. When you let him babysit and the big kitty immediately laid on top of him to lick his skull, he was equal parts amused and annoyed. You’ll come back  to see him with a slight frown however he doesn’t move to get up xD

UF!Papyrus/Boss:When you told Boss about your “dangerous” cat friend, he was overjoyed. Finally he could find an animal companion that was as ferocious as himself! However, when he learned that your tiger was more of a house cat than a terrifying hunter, you could tell that Boss was disappointed. That didn’t stop him from trying to train it but it ended with your pet lying on top of him, licking him to a metaphorical death. By the time you come home, Boss has given up trying to push the big kitten off of him and is just scowling at the animal currently purring on top of his bones~

SF!Sans/Raspberry:Much like Boss, Raspberry is very excited to meet one of the surface’s most ferocious hunters. He is equally disappointed but, unlike Boss, he is still pleased to have such a cool pet. He will gladly love your tiger as a normal pet, despite the lack of attack tricks. When you ask him to tiger-sit, Raz is very willing to do so. When they are playing though, your furry buddy managed to tackle your favorite skelly. This leads to some impromptu skeleton/tiger cuddling and when you get back, Raspberry will forever deny that it ever happened (but you know the truth x3)

SF!Papyrus/Russ:Russ isn’t very fond of meeting your tiger when you first tell him that you have a legitimate hunter in your home. He is the most anxious at first to meet your pet, but ultimately becomes the biggest lover as well. Russ is basically your tiger in skeleton form; scary on the outside and lovable balls of fluff and cuddles on the inside. He loves to hang out with you and your house tiger, so when you ask him to watch the big kitten, he will gladly and happily do so. Your fluffy fur ball ends up laying on the skeleton when Russ decides to take a nap on the floor. You’ll come home to find a sleeping, smiling, skeleton being licked by your favorite pet tiger ^^