Exploited from Birth

Tiger cubs used in traveling acts are prematurely removed from their mothers, which denies them proper nutrition and maternal care. Traveling zoos that use tiger cubs for photo opportunities with the public contribute to the cruel cycle of breeding, abandoning, and killing big cats. Exhibitors take cubs as young as 8 days old on the road and, if they survive the stress of transport and handling, typically dispose of them just a few months later when they become more difficult to handle, replacing them with new cubs. Every year, sanctuaries have to turn away hundreds of requests to place tigers and other big cats, including many from the entertainment industry. Other castoffs end up pitifully caged in roadside zoos, enter the exotic "pet" trade, become targets in canned hunts, or, since tigers are worth more dead than alive, are killed illegally and their skin, bones, flesh, and organs sold on the black market.