There is a sanctuary for big cats in Tampa, Florida.
Thanks, I was getting ready to say the same thing. I was thinking “um, where else would they go? Ferrets can’t survive in the wild–they’ve tried it!”
It’s important enough for them to say it explicitly, I think.
The semi-official attitude of park rangers, from what I’ve heard, is that hikers have a perfect right to be eaten by bears so long as it doesn’t harm the bears.
Ah, the Gold[ilocks] Standard. 
I had a perfectly nice domestic cat. He liked to be scratched between his ears. But every so often I’d scratch him the wrong way, or he had a muscle spasm that he blamed me for, and he got annoyed and batted my hand with his open claws, and on a couple of occasions gave me a hard nip with his teeth.
He was only 10 pounds, so the worst that happened was a few shallow scratches.
If he had weighed 500 pounds I’d be dead. Heck, if he’d weighed 50 pounds, I would be facing a trip to the emergency room. I have a 75 pound dog that I trust completely, but a 75 pound cat–even one with the exact temprement of a domestic house cat–would be too dangerous to keep in the house.
And pet tigers aren’t helping with species survival. Thing is, big cats tend to do pretty well in captivity. And they breed prolifically in captivity. The problem isn’t taking care of the few specimens we have, the problem is that the US is awash with captive tigers of unknown geneology, and there’s no room for them in zoos, and they’re useless for a species survival plan because they’re of unknown subspecies and unknown health. It would be one thing if backyard tiger breeding was the only thing that could save tigers from extinction. But tigers as a species are not facing extinction, just wild tigers…we can breed as many as we like in captivity, the problem is that they are running out of room to live in the wild.
No, you fool! You fell for it! She wanted a pony to begin with!
We keep an elephant in our basement. He is invisible. He scares away the monsters. Except Doug, who is flat and therefore the elephant doesn’t squish him when he steps on him.
(Why yes, we have kids - who have pretty much outgrown Doug and the invisible elephants.)
(Do watch out for the invisible elephant droppings).
Thanks for the nightmares. :eek:
Ask someone who deals with feral cats just what a 10-pound housecat that isn’t socialized to people can do, or even what an unsocialized two-pound kitten can do. One feral cat site had this to say about it:
I’m still a little disappointed that I became an adult too late to have an ocelot as a pet. I wanted one ever since I found out what one was (probably from watching the “Honey West” TV show in the late 60s, though I was too little to remember exactly). Unfortunately, by the time I was old enough that I could actually afford one and take proper care of it, they’re not legal to own anymore.
Probably for the best, I know–they probably don’t make good pets. But I’ve played with them before (kittens and adults) and they’re very sweet cats when properly socialized. Still, though, they weigh 35-70lbs and could probably do some damage if provoked or annoyed.
I recently watched a news program about exotic pets in Florida. The problem is that many people are getting lizards or large snakes as pets, then when their Nile Monitor Lizard becomes too much to handle, it is let go into the wild and is thriving in the non-native environment. Add to that boa constrictors and Jeb Bush and DisneyLAND is looking better and better.
Oh that reminds me. I want an elephant, a polar brear, some meerkcats. And a Zebra 
Yikes!
More tigers!
Much closer to my home!