Eupterus;1186528; said:
Concerning big cats. I was chatting with someone who was keeping a lioness before.
I shared my concerns about them and they said many people are also injured by horses. In fact more people are injured by horses then big cats. I found this interesting so maybe it's good to just keep things in perspective.
Coming from a family of champion showjumpers, I'll agree with you about horse related injuries, (in fact, more people died from 3 day eventing a few years ago than were killed doing motorsports!)........but if you think about it, the ratio of horse owners to big cat owners blows the rest of your argument to bits.
Been to many big cat shows lately? Take your kids to the local big cat ranch?
No, I didn't think so. Nice try, but don't be so damn stupid.
The sad fact is, there are more big cats in private ownership, esp. in North America, than are left in the wild. I'm not getting at any big cat owners when I say this, because they are at least keeping the species going, but i do worry where it's all going to end up. Unless there is a concerted effort by owners to breed the animals, it's a bit of a dead end street. Who knows, maybe private and zoo ownership will be the last reserve of many of these species.
My worry is that we are already at that stage.....