Tigers feast on live cow in zoo show
A video showing hungry tigers eating a cow alive has shocked animal rights groups.
The clip was taken at a zoo in China where visitors are encouraged to feed the animals.
Special vending flaps are fitted to tourist buses and people pay £2.60 to 'deliver' a chicken and £100 for a cow. The 'barbaric practice' has been criticised by the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
'This is not acceptable for entertainment or any other reason and is symptomatic of the low priority animal welfare currently gets in China,' said spokesman Dave Eastham.
'WSPAhas a history of working with Chinese animal welfare organisations but we feel more needs to be done to reduce this kind of animal cruelty.
'In 2008, tourists from all over the world will be coming to Beijing for the Olympics and they will leave with a very negative impression of China unless they start to take steps now to eradicate this type of thing.'
The authorities at Harbin Wildlife Park in North China – the world's biggest breeding centre for Siberian tigers – claim the animals are being prepared for release back into the wild.
'The fees charged for the live animals also help pay for the running of the park,' a spokesman said.
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Also, to add to this quote:
"yes you are correct in saying that Tigers in the wild eat live Animals- but atleast they have a chance to get way - in this zoo they have no chance AT ALL!"
Do you think the meat you bought from the supermarket had any chance to get away either?
- Suzy Webb, Surrey, UK
I'd like to add to this quote: "This is animal cruelty. In the wild, animals that are hunted and killed by tigers (who do not hunt in packs) know the rules of the game. They have a chance for escape. The tigers have to use their skills and their strength or they don't eat."
I'm not saying it's wrong, but often it's the actual eating of the prey that baffles wildcats learning to hunt the most - often they will hunt their prey, catch it sucessfully and are unable to make a conection with live prey and food. Maybe they should make it more fair on the cow (if that's possible) but they have to learn somehow. Got any better ideas?
- Suzy Webb, Surrey, UK
Imagine you are a domestic cow in a dark, moving room which suddenly tilts and dumps you roughly on the ground. You are just getting your bearings and trying to figure out where you are when a pack of tigers begin to tear you to shreds.
Even if these tigers are being readied for release to the wild, I don't see how driving a confused animal up to them in a truck is going to help them hunt.
This is animal cruelty. In the wild, animals that are hunted and killed by tigers (who do not hunt in packs) know the rules of the game. They have a chance for escape. The tigers have to use their skills and their strength or they don't eat.
If this "zoo" is in fact raising tigers to repopulate them, then surely there is a way to do it that doesn't involve such cruelty and abuse. What is this doing to the children and people that witness it? How is it desensitising them? I think the hidden animal and human costs of a programme like this greatly outweigh any advantages there may be.
- Sarah Rudy, Findlay, Ohio, USA
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