Volunteer mauled to death by Liger

Was out the whole day, buying stuff for me and toys for my kitties for their upcoming birthday on Nov 15. Just came back and learned this tragic news on the Big Cat News blog. Peter Getz, a volunteer at an animal sanctuary that had been attacked by a liger has succumbed to his wounds and expired. The incident took place at Safari's Interactive Animal Sanctuary in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on Wednesday. It appears that for some reason the experienced volunteer entered the liger's enclosure to feed the one thousand pound cat. This had never been done before. The animal was always fed from outside via poles. Anyways the liger attacked and severely injured Getz. He was taken to a hospital but passed away on Thursday.

Now apart from the apparent tragedy that occurred owing to a lapse on part of the zoo staff there is also another important thing here - that Jeff Corwin very rightly alludes to in the following video. CAPTIVE BREEDING AND KEEPING OF EXOTIC ANIMALS IS WRONG!! Obviously this was a sanctuary and they rescued the liger from somewhere. But who bred the liger and why? Breeding of male lions and tigresses to create hybrids, that are ligers, is unnatural and usually commercial. And the exotic animal trade fuels the decline of tigers in the wild in Asia. It's not a hidden secret that it is not very difficult to obtain a tiger cub in states where it is legal to keep big cats privately. And it is also a known fact that the way things are right now in parts of India and Southeast Asia - it is far cheaper to poach/capture a tiger cub from the wild than obtain one from a breeder. In the end: the animals always suffer, and occasionally so do the people and their families who come in contact with these inherently wild animals. A poor guy is dead now and the liger will probably be put down. Sooooo sad!!

More here.

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