bigcatawareness:

This makes my stomach turn.  This is from Catty Shack Ranch in Jacksonville, Florida.  I think I have gotten asks about this before but the EXTREME lack of concern for the animals(THAT many tigers in one cage? at feeding time?!) and lack of safety measures for people is absolutely appalling.  What a horrendous facility, avoid at all costs.  

You can see a similar feeding video here.

bigcatawareness:

yahoonewsphotos:

The Tiger Temple

Thai wildlife protection officers said they found no mistreatment of more than 100 tigers housed at a Buddhist temple that is a popular tourist attraction, though charges have been pressed for keeping rare birds there.

About 50 officials from the wildlife department and local religious affairs office, along with soldiers, made a three-hour inspection on Thursday of the Luangtamahabua Buddhist temple compound, famous for its tame-looking big cats living alongside Buddhist monks. (AP)

Photography by AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit (2), Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha (2)

Read Wildlife officials: Famed Thai temple doesn’t abuse tigers »

See more photos of The Tiger Temple and our other slideshows on Yahoo News.

I am SO ANGRY.
No mistreatment?! So living in tiny overcrowded cages with no enrichment is not mistreatment? Feeding them a HORRENDOUS diet is not mistreatment? Chaining them to the ground for tourists to harass for hours in the sun isn’t mistreatment? Tearing Cubs from their mothers regularly isn’t mistreatment? Refusing to euthanize or provide proper vet care isn’t mistreatment? Hitting cats and spraying urine in their face for “misbehaving” isn’t mistreatment? Putting the funds for their care second to the funds of the temple isn’t mistreatment?
This is such fucking bullshit and I am BEYOND livid. Part of me knew this was too good to be true but my god, how can you be so blind?!

This is a devastating loss for the Tigers and I am so, SO saddened by this.

howtoskinatiger:

wighthound:

In case any of you also thought that the whole taking of a fox onto a bus was some sort of stupid joke, it wasn’t.

Why is this such a bad idea, you might ask?

Well for one, you’re taking a kit, who from the picture looks to only be couple of months old, into a place that is very stressful and full of a lot of stimuli that can easily freak a fox out (not to mention that this fox is not leashed in the picture from what I can tell, which a spooked fox can bolt and be a hassle to catch on a bus). You might make the argument that interacting with people is necessary to socialize a fox, but the difference between taking a kit around a few friends at home and taking a kit onto a god damn public bus, is that the former is a controlled environment in which the kit can be removed if it becomes stressed, and is around people you can trust.

Whereas taking a fox onto a bus is full of people that you don’t know, and Anda herself has admitted that some people don’t like the idea of foxes, and people will easily freak out as well. Some might claim they got bit or scratched by the fox, in which case the fox can be taken away, euthanized, and tested for rabies, even if the fox never touched anyone besides her.

It’s such a major issue that some people in the fox community discourage having foxes at all because there is no proven effective rabies vaccines for foxes.

So if some concerned citizen had alerted the authorities and claimed that there was a wild animal on a bus and that it had bit/scratched someone, that little fox could have been taken and euthanized.

All because a teenager wanted to look cool in front of her friends.

Not only that, but it’s just outright rude to the people on the bus. There’s a lot of shared air on that bus, and you don’t know who has allergies to animals. Foxes also throw off a pretty nasty stink when they get scared. It isn’t quite as pungent when they’re younger (and I speak from experience of having an arctic fox for a time), but it still smells pretty bad and can last hours. Even if they don’t throw their scared smell, they will still urinate and defecate, which also smalls and is just unsanitary.

But let’s take back the point about people being allergic to animals and assume this bus is fine with people bringing animals onto it regularly. 

Foxes, like dogs and cats, need to be vaccinated against diseases like parvo, distemper (with the exception of gray foxes as far as distemper goes), etc. Foxes, like dogs and cats, cannot be fully vaccinated until they are about 14-16 weeks/ about 4 months old, which this kit in the picture is blatantly not, and it’s not wise to take an unvaccinated animal into a public space where other animals have been and that you do not know if those animals were fully vaccinated. 

So even if a concerned patron didn’t call the police on her and her friends, that fox could have been exposed to life-threatening diseases because he was taken out into a public space before he was fully vaccinated.

Anda isn’t a professional, she doesn’t have liability insurance, she doesn’t have any licenses or permits to exhibit animals. She’s 16 years old.

All she has is an attention complex and is willing to put animals in stressful, risky situations to look cool in front of her friends, and hide a fox from her mother who didn’t know she had with her.

Yet this young woman is talking about taking wild orphaned fox kits and giving it to someone else. Wild orphaned fox kits.

And Anda, someone who’s mother apparently was told that having a fox was just like having a dog by her daughter, yet he bit and made messes in the house, which pushed her mother to have a friend take care of Miko for some time (if you ask Anda she claims it was because Krystelle was going to come and steal Miko, which is absolutely absurd), is talking about getting another fox or two this spring/summer.

A 16 year old girl who says she’s going to ‘adopt’ (see: buy but probably say they were rescues) 1-2 more foxes this spring/summer.

I know full grown adults that can barely handle one fox, but this teenager wants to have three.

fortheloveofwildlife aka Anda Ciurezu, everyone.

IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE