There's been a rather odd post on the South Lakes Facebook page this week, concerning the park's sole Amur Tiger, Nina who is now 18 years old. Basically the owner of the park seems to be preparing visitors for Nina's anticipated demise in the near future. The post is as follows:
"Nina is our Amur Tiger , she is now close to 18 years old. She arrived at the zoo in July 1996 with her brother Egor, they soon became firm favourites with our visitors and have raised millions of pounds for conservation in their time here and helped wild tigers have a future. Her twin brother Egor died in 2011 from old age related issues and now sadly Nina is really showing her age and we feel we should point out to you all that we cannot put off the inevitable as she is one of the oldest tigers in captivity in the world today. We hope you can understand and accept that she is now thin and not looking her best , but she is active and whilst her appetite is not good we are giving her the best care available. Personally I owe Nina so much , she has been such a loyal and wonderful animal with a beautiful character and without her the zoo would not be what it is and wild tigers would certainly not be living in some parts of the wild ! I built my zoo because I absolutely love animals in the wild and wanted to have ambassadors to raise awareness and vital funds for protecting wild animals... Nina has been my longest living friend in the zoo and I will miss her immensely as with my other loyal animals who are my family here when she is gone...."
Reading between the lines here, but I can't help but think that Nina passing away would be quite 'helpful' for the zoo as it would mean more space available for the other big cats - isn't it her that's sharing with the Jaguars at present? Granted she is old, but I can't help but suspect that she will be quietly euthanized so as to free up space in the near future. Admittedly I'm sure this sort of thing is common in the zoo world, but after the Kadi debacle I find it quite incredible that Mr Gill is effectively telling people about Nina's expected death when she is still alive! I also think, as lovely as I'm sure she is, he is massively overstating her significance in the survival of tigers in the wild in the above statement!
"Nina is our Amur Tiger , she is now close to 18 years old. She arrived at the zoo in July 1996 with her brother Egor, they soon became firm favourites with our visitors and have raised millions of pounds for conservation in their time here and helped wild tigers have a future. Her twin brother Egor died in 2011 from old age related issues and now sadly Nina is really showing her age and we feel we should point out to you all that we cannot put off the inevitable as she is one of the oldest tigers in captivity in the world today. We hope you can understand and accept that she is now thin and not looking her best , but she is active and whilst her appetite is not good we are giving her the best care available. Personally I owe Nina so much , she has been such a loyal and wonderful animal with a beautiful character and without her the zoo would not be what it is and wild tigers would certainly not be living in some parts of the wild ! I built my zoo because I absolutely love animals in the wild and wanted to have ambassadors to raise awareness and vital funds for protecting wild animals... Nina has been my longest living friend in the zoo and I will miss her immensely as with my other loyal animals who are my family here when she is gone...."
Reading between the lines here, but I can't help but think that Nina passing away would be quite 'helpful' for the zoo as it would mean more space available for the other big cats - isn't it her that's sharing with the Jaguars at present? Granted she is old, but I can't help but suspect that she will be quietly euthanized so as to free up space in the near future. Admittedly I'm sure this sort of thing is common in the zoo world, but after the Kadi debacle I find it quite incredible that Mr Gill is effectively telling people about Nina's expected death when she is still alive! I also think, as lovely as I'm sure she is, he is massively overstating her significance in the survival of tigers in the wild in the above statement!
