If you want to unlearn all your facts about wild cats and relearn everything incorrectly, watch this Nightline segment:
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It was posted on Hulu, so I am not sure if those outside the USA can see it. Right from the opening segment, where they say servals are housecats descended from cheetahs and lions (or something like that), I knew I was in for trouble. But when they switched from the anchor desk to the live footage I knew why - I immediately recognized the location as the infamous rescue center in Tampa whose director is a rabid anti-zoo zealot. The live interview anchor, who is interviewing her, goes on to say (summarizing her statements, perhaps incorrectly though she does not correct him), that people should not own servals because they spray urine and eat your children! The segment also shows the liligers recently born at an Oklahoma animal park, but then goes on to imply that these are being bred in the US for pets (which is absurd). Even if we do not agree with this kind of breeding (which I do not), they are born at a licensed zoo and are not going to be sold.
The segment starts by saying there is a new craze spreading across America of wild hybrid cats. Crosses like bengal cats (now a recognized and established breed of domestic cat) are nothing new. But the Tampa facility just managed to convince NIghtline there is a newsworthy story where in fact there is not. (BTW the reason I am not mentioning the facility by name is they are media whores who scour the web and if they find their name here they will try to hijack this thread).
Watch TV. Watch Movies. | Online | Free | Hulu
It was posted on Hulu, so I am not sure if those outside the USA can see it. Right from the opening segment, where they say servals are housecats descended from cheetahs and lions (or something like that), I knew I was in for trouble. But when they switched from the anchor desk to the live footage I knew why - I immediately recognized the location as the infamous rescue center in Tampa whose director is a rabid anti-zoo zealot. The live interview anchor, who is interviewing her, goes on to say (summarizing her statements, perhaps incorrectly though she does not correct him), that people should not own servals because they spray urine and eat your children! The segment also shows the liligers recently born at an Oklahoma animal park, but then goes on to imply that these are being bred in the US for pets (which is absurd). Even if we do not agree with this kind of breeding (which I do not), they are born at a licensed zoo and are not going to be sold.
The segment starts by saying there is a new craze spreading across America of wild hybrid cats. Crosses like bengal cats (now a recognized and established breed of domestic cat) are nothing new. But the Tampa facility just managed to convince NIghtline there is a newsworthy story where in fact there is not. (BTW the reason I am not mentioning the facility by name is they are media whores who scour the web and if they find their name here they will try to hijack this thread).
