Born Free Appeail Tiger Zoos in China (desperate acts of cruelty)

[Pinkbear (Julie)]

You never hear or see much about the way the French still have travelling circuses, where lions and tigers are carted from town to town is small trailers. We have just finished a contract for Eurodisney, and the circus was in the town a few miles up the road. At night, the lions are left staring at the passing traffic through their metal bars in cages 4 foot by 10 foot.

I was so shocked I didn't know what to say. 

And this is in EUROPE! They are our neighbours!

Unbelieveable.... 

[catzluva71]

signed the petition  barbaric 

When are these so called 'people' (and i use that term loosely) going to realise there is no need in the 21st century for all this cruelty? 

[lilycat]

Signed the petition gladly.

How much longer will this be tolerated? Zoos and Safari Parks in this country are just as bad in my view; animals are still taken out of the wild and put into these places and it's absolutely shameful.

As a matter of principle I will not visit Zoos, Safari Parks or Circuses where animals are part of the "entertainment" and I don't for one minute believe the claim [made by zoos and SP's] that the animals are there as part of a breeding programme for endangered species. It's a lie that is used to make the whole unspeakable business sound legitimate.

I may be a teensy bit extreme on the subject but I don't even like the way researchers and naturalists insist on tagging everything that moves...game reserves can be patrolled,managed and protected but otherwise, leave the animals alone and they'll thrive.

I'm sorry but this particular subject makes me really very angry 

[Teresa Pawcats]

Mark I watched it all, how I wish those bars would cave in and those evil humans become the bait.

[Mark]

Did you see the other video showing a Chines "Zoo" which has been described as an asylum for animals. The tiger just paces back and forth in a cage 

Its disgusting 

[Teresa Pawcats]

I feel ashamed to belong to the human race

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Shocking .... but hardly surprising for a nation that still has hardly any human rights it is no wonder that animal rights are so low down on their list.

[Mark]

I hope all those smiling onlookers get mauled to death by tigers!!!!!

[Canterbury_cats (Sharon)]

I havent seen this footage but Tigers (semi tame) being fed live cows to be mauled to death, is repulsive in the extreme.  Keeping Tigers in a cage and shot for meat is just about as bad.. Born Free posted this to me and its about the issue and the upcoming 2008 Chinese Olympics. Read the blog and find out more.. Its appauling way to treat any animal buts Tigers, sometimes I am ashamed to be part of the human race!!

Although a well travelled person, there are some countries i would never visit due to appauling human and animal rights and China is just one.. How an earth they got the Olympics I have no idea..

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/blog/?p=27

Born Free Founder and Chair of Trustees, Virginia McKenna, today commented on new information contained a report produced by Sky News, on zoos in China, “I have been to China on several occasions and have witnessed this cruel practice myself. With the Olympic Games just a year away, China has a short window of opportunity to tackle these issues and faces the very real possibility that many of the millions of sports enthusiasts travelling to the country in 2008 will return not with memories of the Olympic spectacle, nor of China’s undoubted ancient civilisation and culture, nor of the sparkling new China that has emerged in the last few years, but of the animal welfare horrors that still go on, cause such suffering, and offend us all.”

It is not the only reason China and animals are in the news at the moment. Certain ‘tiger farmers’ in China, together with some officials from the State Forestry Administration, are promoting the idea that there should be a reopening of tiger parts trade in China from their tiger farms. The results could be catastrophic for wild tigers and a coalition involving all the major players in tiger conservation, including Born Free, known as the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking, are calling on the Chinese government to reject such proposals and confirm their commitment to the total ban.

It seems crazy to me that when Born Free and other groups are working so hard in the field to try and protect tigers, there could be those who want to make the commercial trade in their body parts widespread, convenient and acceptable.

I am travelling to The Hague for the CITES  I will be doing a daily blog from the Convention as decisions are taken which could affect the future of endangered species right around the world

I was appalled to see the footage on Sky TV news  of live animals being fed to tigers at a chinese zoo. I forced myself to watch so that I could tell others of the sheer cruelty and barbarism involved. This resulted in a sleepness night for me, due to being haunted by the images of a poor, confused domesticated cow being inexpertly mauled and eaten alive by semi-tame animals, who did not know how to hunt or kill efficiently as their wild kind do. The screams of the live chickens being used as bait for the tigers was also truly horrific. This was done in the name of entertainment for the onlookers who held their children up to the windows of the buses in the enclosure to get a better view; another generation being brutalised to accept cruelty to animals as the norm. I shall be writing to the chinese ambassador to voice my disgust at this sort of treatment of living sentent creatures

Born Free Will Travers