# Why do people insist on treating deadly wild animals like pets? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 19, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737 "2005-08-19T13:36:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/61 "2005-08-21T16:27:38Z")
All good points, **Manda** , but I think with only around 8,000 tigers _in the world_, each member of the species is pretty valuable. Our local zoo doesn’t really include privately owned specimens in its breeding programme (we’re in the world-wide programme), but that seems kind of like a waste to me. If it is a successful member of its endangered species, it has something to contribute to their extremely small gene pool. Maybe they can put tigers in the Canadian Arctic (the Siberians, anyway). How cool would that be? Polar bear vs. tiger for supremacy of the north. (Yeah, I know, there are a few minor problems with this scheme.) ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/62 "2005-08-21T17:10:33Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > All good points, **Manda** , but I think with only around 8,000 tigers _in the world_, each member of the species is pretty valuable. Our local zoo doesn’t really include privately owned specimens in its breeding programme (we’re in the world-wide programme), but that seems kind of like a waste to me. If it is a successful member of its endangered species, it has something to contribute to their extremely small gene pool. > > Maybe they can put tigers in the Canadian Arctic (the Siberians, anyway). How cool would that be? Polar bear vs. tiger for supremacy of the north. (Yeah, I know, there are a few minor problems with this scheme.) My understanding is that the reason they don’t include them is that 1) they don’t know if they aren’t the products of 3 or 4 generations of in-breeding, and carry some horrible defects, and in fact were the only survivors of a litter that all died of said defects and 2) They don’t know if they are “pure”–Bengal and Siberian tigers interbreed, and that that looks Bengal may have a Siberian grangmother, and those traits may reappear in later generations. The current wisdom is that these crosses are a bad idea, and that crossed animals 1) should be released back into the wild, ever and 2) we shouldn’t make any more. There is some controversy about this, though, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/63 "2005-08-21T17:11:45Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > My understanding is that the reason they don’t include them is that 1) they don’t know if they aren’t the products of 3 or 4 generations of in-breeding, and carry some horrible defects, and in fact were the only survivors of a litter that all died of said defects and 2) They don’t know if they are “pure”–Bengal and Siberian tigers interbreed, and that that looks Bengal may have a Siberian grangmother, and those traits may reappear in later generations. The current wisdom is that these crosses are a bad idea, and that crossed animals 1) should be released back into the wild, ever and 2) we shouldn’t make any more. There is some controversy about this, though, I believe. Make that “should NOT be released back into the wild” ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/64 "2005-08-21T17:20:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Why the hell do they have to kill the animal after something like this? That pisses me off. The tiger was simply being a tiger. I know. That’s why it had to be killed. Left alive, there was too great a risk that it would attack another human. The law is pretty harsh on dogs that attack humans; creatures bigger than us get no second chances. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/65 "2005-08-21T19:14:44Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > I know. That’s why it had to be killed. Left alive, there was too great a risk that it would attack another human. The law is pretty harsh on dogs that attack humans; creatures bigger than us get no second chances. The difference being, of course, that we expect domesticated dogs to interact with people on a daily basis. There is no need to have any such expectations of a captive tiger. It could be placed in an enclosure or a preserve, and people could stay the fuck out of its way rather than treating it like some stuffed toy for photographic opportunities. That way, it would never again have the opportunity to attack a human being, and could live out its life with a modicum of comfort and dignity. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/66 "2005-08-21T19:58:39Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > My understanding is that the reason they don’t include them is that 1) they don’t know if they aren’t the products of 3 or 4 generations of in-breeding, and carry some horrible defects, and in fact were the only survivors of a litter that all died of said defects and 2) They don’t know if they are “pure”–Bengal and Siberian tigers interbreed, and that that looks Bengal may have a Siberian grangmother, and those traits may reappear in later generations. The current wisdom is that these crosses are a bad idea, and that crossed animals 1) should{not} be released back into the wild, ever and 2) we shouldn’t make any more. There is some controversy about this, though, I believe. Again, all good points. My gut reaction says don’t kill tigers unless you really, really have to, and having killed one human who shouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place isn’t a good enough reason for me. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/67 "2005-08-22T14:13:57Z")
> [@Dan Norder](#): > > This is the Straight Dope so I’ll have to go with “Cite?” as I always thought that was just another old wive’s tale. Well, here’s one I got in about 20 seconds: [Cite](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0211_030211_tsavolions_2.html). Some relevant quotes: > [@](#): > > In addition, historical reports suggest that lions of the region may have developed a taste for human flesh, as they were regularly provisioned with human corpses from famines and smallpox outbreaks. > [@](#): > > “Lions are a social species, capable of transmitting behavioral traditions from one generation to the next,” said Kerbis Peterhans. “The fact that they can be born and raised to hunt and eat humans means that an outbreak of man-eating usually doesn’t stop until all the responsible lions and their offspring are eliminated,” he said. I’m sure there are many more cites, if you care to look. Of course, we can’t ask other carnivores if they think people are tasty. Since, once they start eating human, they sometimes don’t stop until they are destroyed, I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch. Socialization is certainly a factor. Why not gustation as well? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/68 "2005-08-22T15:50:30Z")
Not at all related. Years ago I saw a program about a family who raises bears for the movies. The Daddy looked like a bear. Nice Mommy. Teenage daughter who was shockingly pretty. What would it be like to date her? “Son, you touch my little girls and nobody is going to find nothing of you but a pile of you-know-what in the woods.” –and- “If you don’t, I’ll tell Daddy you did.” OK, back to the regular discussion. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/69 "2005-08-25T01:29:54Z")
I dated a girl whose father was a bear shaman. Meeting him was… interesting. One day we were walking back from class and I kept thinking I was seeing, out of the corner of my eye, a bear parallelling us in the woods. She said that wasn’t just a coincedence… Complex, beautiful, _enthusiastic_ woman. We weren’t together for long, but the relationship led to quite a few changes in me, including one of religion (after we broke up). ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737/70 "2005-08-25T02:44:59Z")
[HIJACK] I woke up one morning a couple of years ago and the headline on the front page of the Las Vegas Review Journal was **Tiger Mauls Roy** and I thought to myself “I didn’t even know Tiger Woods was in town… what the hell was he doing on stage with Sigfried & Roy?” [/HIJACK] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-insist-on-treating-deadly-wild-animals-like-pets/317737.md?page=3)