Madness!!

[Vulpes]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/5077009/Ride-a-lion-swing-a-bear-cub-and-stroke-a-tiger-at-Lujan-Zoo-in-Argentina.html?image=15

A blogger on Travel Buddies | Hotel Reviews | Travel Blogs - TravBuddy.com describes how she and her travel companion were supposedly allowed to play with the animals even more closely after the zoo had closed: "I love Argentina. People aren't hung up on safety. They don't have as many fears as the rest of the world. The zoo closed and we kept going to the cages because we had a little bravery in us. Since it was only us, the guys who worked at the zoo let us take goofy pictures with the animals. I sat on a lion's back. haha"

A controversial zoo in Argentina allows tourists to have extremely close encounters with some of the most dangerous predators in the world

At the Lujan Zoo near Buenos Aires visitors can ride lions, cuddle bears, stroke tigers and feed cheetahs

The Lujan Zoo, which is about 70km away from downtown Buenos Aires, has an entrance fee of $7 (£5) and allows its guests to 'interact' with all of its animals from rabbits to adult male lions

"Anyone who has any knowledge of big cats will understand that they are wild animals and, as such, as unpredictable"

 

[Animal]

This is not madness... This is Argentiniaaaa (Sorry for the bad 300-joke)

I wonder for how long this is going on without an accident!

 

[snowleopard]

It's all fun and games until some cute tourist has their leg chewed off by a big cat. I'm still a little shocked at the woman riding the lion, and I actually feel sorry that the cats are handled in such a manner. Could they possibly be declawed or "defanged"?

 

[Gigit]

It's all fun and games until some cute tourist has their leg chewed off by a big cat. I'm still a little shocked at the woman riding the lion, and I actually feel sorry that the cats are handled in such a manner. Could they possibly be declawed or "defanged"?

And drugged by the looks of them

 

[Chlidonias]

I would say they must certainly be de-clawed (check out the paws on the tiger in the first photo -- it looks like the claws should be visible with the toes splayed like that).

I don't know about them being drugged but they do definitely look VERY dopey so its quite possible

 

[GillP]

I agree about the declawing and drugging.

Seeing this quite literally makes me feel sick .......... what an utter and total lack of respect for these poor animals. Maybe it's not terribly mature of me but I want to slap and shake those ignorant women and ask them what the hell they think they're doing.

This is the 2nd post I've read today about dreadful Latin American zoos as I read another heartbreaking post earlier about a zoo in Mexico: Zoologico de Chihuahua: A disgusting , ugly foul zoo , please help me report it

 

[Dan]

Oh boy, don´t get me started, because I tend to get mobbed at this web site when raising questions like the one in this thread... but I guess I can´t help myself - so here I go again:

A highly intelligent and highly educated lady, a former colleague of mine, took a year off from our workplace to go and do some voluntary work at an orphanage in Thailand. When she came back, she treated us to a Powerpoint presentation of all her welldoings down there.

I felt at least mildly comfortable until she started showing us pictures of her young son (who was with her all the time in Thailand) patting a tiger in a Thai zoo. The poor animal was obviously both "defanged" and "detoothed" (or whatever the hell it is called) and furthermore drugged out of his skull. I felt sick to my stomach but had no courage except to applaud her presentation afterwards, just like all my other colleagues did.

Oh well...

 

[Blackduiker]

Blackduiker

It's all fun and games until some cute tourist has their leg chewed off by a big cat. I'm still a little shocked at the woman riding the lion, and I actually feel sorry that the cats are handled in such a manner. Could they possibly be declawed or "defanged"?

"Declawed or defanged?" The shear size of them is enough to snap your neck or back just roughhousing it for fun!

 

[docend24]

April fools!

 

[zooman]

Okay we can no longer blame the zoo. These very poor zoos would not offer this form of entertainment if there was no demand for it!

Really just an extension of Dreamworld pracitises or all the people haveing there pics taken with exotic animals at zoos. Without barriers of respect between animal and man.Many of whom are in the zoochat gallery. I would expect that Dreamworld does not declaw or {how did you put it Dan} Detoothed!

Haveing a close look at the keepers. They are very focused on the cats. Maybe the cats have already reduced the number of tourists that do this

 

[KEEPER]

This kind of tourists are idiots. Ride a lion, what will be the next? put her/his head between the lion's jaws? Of course, the zoo should not allow this...