Yeah, well...... don´t start me up again.... but.... big cats kept in fish tanks???!
GOD, I HATE THIS!
As well as I hate the theory of "more tigers being kept in backyards in Texas than living in the wild in Asia" (right or wrong, this has been suggested here as well as on other web sites).
Damn it, you "gringos" can send people to the moon but not get your animal welfare priorities right...
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Sorry about this very unpolite rant, but I get so totally pissed off when I see pictures like this. Tomorrow I will try to be a bit more constructive if I write here at Zoochat...
Yeah, well...... don´t start me up again.... but.... big cats kept in fish tanks???!
GOD, I HATE THIS!
As well as I hate the theory of "more tigers being kept in backyards in Texas than living in the wild in Asia" (right or wrong, this has been suggested here as well as on other web sites).
Damn it, you "gringos" can send people to the moon but not get your animal welfare priorities right...
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Sorry about this very unpolite rant, but I get so totally pissed off when I see pictures like this. Tomorrow I will try to be a bit more constructive if I write here at Zoochat...
@Dan: to disappoint you even further, many of the cats in Cincinnati's cat house do not have any access to the outdoors. Some have tiny and totally inadequate outdoor enclosures, while others are confined to glass tanks for their entire lives. Grim stuff, and this is at a fairly famous zoo. The feline collection is amazing, but the exhibits are clearly substandard. At least this unfortunate snow leopard is the only "large" cat" in the building.
They used to have puma in the cat house also. Is that no longer the case (I hope)? And as I have previously stated, they are working on redoing this whole thing.
As for animal welfare in the U.S. in general, the problem is that ever since we broke off from the Brits back in the 1700's we have had a fiercely independent streak that makes Americans feel no one can take away their individual rights - and this includes (but is not limited to) ownership of exotic animals. Things are improving and most Americans are saddened by displays like this, but it is an ongoing problem. However, I think things are improving because when I moved to Arizona in the early 1990's there were three bad roadside zoos in the state and now all of them have closed.
And, by all means, the "fiercely independant streak" is one of the things I love about the USA and its people - it is just that sometimes it goes way over the top, like in the case of allowing people to keep lions and tigers in their backyards etc.
