Chinese zoo stages tiger attacks for tourists

[urbpan]

Chinese Zoo Stages Tiger Attacks for Tourists.

The headline is a little misleading. The "tiger attacks" are staged by dumping a cow out the back of a truck into the tiger enclosure, which is an open area that the buses full of tourists drive around. There are several warnings about graphic content, but I didn't see anything gross. Upsetting probably, but not gross.

I haven't heard the audio, so I'm not sure if this is being sold as enrichment or if its unapologetically for entertainment value. Suffice it to say, this wouldn't happen in a North American zoo.

Comments

[candent.livejournal.com]

An average sized cow, appears alert as it is literally DUMPED from the back of a truck and tries to escape.

[candent.livejournal.com]

What if it was a dog or a cat?

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

it's generally not a good idea to feed predators to other predators.

[candent.livejournal.com]

In a place where human rights count for little, perhaps it's a bit crazy to expect anyone to care that much for animals.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

there is that. you'd want to keep your zoo animals in decent shape because they're the money makers though.

Also

[candent.livejournal.com]

I was sickened. But also realistic. This is obviously perfectly acceptable in China and people pay good money to see it. What is acceptable to you and me, may not (and often is not) to them. And vice versa. What pissed me off was the joy the parents took in pointing out the cow's last desperate moments to their chattering children. "Look honey, did you see how that brave tiger tore the flesh from that silly cow’s neck with his teeth?" Meanwhile the cow bleeds to death while other animals tear at its hind quarters. More cheering. A family day out, Beijing style.

[bellisaurius.livejournal.com]

Does the dumping off of a truck actually influence the ethics of the situation? I'll admit the aesthetics are horrible, but an animal sent for slaughter is hardly in good shape where location and placement is concerned.

The real question is "are we ethically or morally obligate to quickly kill a higher order animal before feeding it to another animal?" I don't think natural rights theory holds here, and we're basing the decision more on our squeamishness about the nautre of the tigers kill (essentially the same as a kosherite slaughter).

[candent.livejournal.com]

I think we are ethically obligated to recognize that animals deserve the right to live, to not be eaten, skinned, etc.

[bellisaurius.livejournal.com]

The absolute position on animal rights in this case can't be correct, if for any reason, because tigers eat meat. The methods they use can't be compared to those people use because they don't have the ability, so therefore, they can't have the repsonsibility to ensure the animal goes down quickly.

The real question is whether we have a moral responsibility to the cow, to put it down before feeding it to the tigers. While the animals are being tossed into it for entertainment value, they're not being treated in a way that resembles dogfighting, as in this case, the cow was born for the sake of being food, and the tigers aren't in grave peril.

Like I said, I feel squeamish, but it's not activating a moral feeling, which has me wondering why.

[matthewdh.livejournal.com]

so you want the tigers to kill and eat tofu cows?

[candent.livejournal.com]

Did I say that?