Well, this certainly gives new meaning to the term Party Animals! All the rage for kiddie birthdays in recent months? Swimming with tigers. Not the blow-up, floaty variety but real, carnivorous, wild, instinctively predatory tigers.
Entire families are swimming side-by-side with tigers at Dade City's Wild Things in Florida, a 22-acre private zoo that allows patrons to hang with a variety of dangerous creatures.
People are coming from as far as Iceland for the experience. I certainly get the allure from a child's perspective. At just 8 pounds, the little fur balls don't seem so scary right now. Plus, how cool will it be to brag to your classmates that you hung out with the fierce and feared tigers. But what parent thinks this is a good idea? I love animals as much as the next mom, but this seems way too crazy to me. This reminds me of the couple who allowed their 5-year-old to swim with sharks over the summer -- it's totally irresponsible parenting.
Yet the reps at Wild Things say the parties have been a "roaring success" (pathetic pun intended). After signing a general release and playing $200, daredevils get to frolic for 30 minutes in the water, on the lawn, or bottle feed the animals. They also offer a swimming with gators option too -- which seems even more ridiculous. Facility president Randy Stearns admits there is some danger:
Well, with any animal there’s always a risk. It’s not like we’re going to just throw you in the pool and say, here’s the tiger. You’re in there with at least one of the trainers actually in the water with you.
Oh please! I'm not buying that this is a safe, family-friendly activity. And my concerns have nothing to do with being an over-protective, helicopter parent -- which I'm not. There is a reason they call them wild animals. What happens if one takes a swipe and slashes out someone's eye? Or playfully chomps down too hard on a kid's finger and takes it off? Is the risk really worth having a cool party or vacation picture or video? No way!
Would you let your kids swim with tigers?
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Comments 7
Lovebug, tigers actually enjoy water and can swim very well. It's common to see adult tigers at sanctuaries lounging in tubs of water and even swimming.
The problem I have more with it is that they force the babies to keep swimming as long as people are in the water. That baby tiger in the clip was clearly heading towards the land and was pulled back into the water and forced to continue swimming by the 'trainer' which is just cruel. Adults might be able to swim but they do so voluntarily and have better stamina than a little baby tiger who can probably only swim comfortably for a minute or two before they want out and to rest on land.
I also dislike the whole idea of animal exploitation for entertainment. It's so tired and old and it's never been able to be done without some sort of cruelty to the animals. Animal zoos like Ringlings and Barnam & Bailey have dozens of animal abuse citations. Sigfried and Roy's tigers snapped, likely out of stress from having to perform and being in such a noisy, unnatural environment. SeaWorld has had dozens of orcas die and even murder each other and also murder trainers because of stress and also undergo cruel procedures like purposeful grinding down of their teeth and over-exposure to the sun in shallow, uncovered tanks.
I don't see these parks as being any better. Forcing animals to act unnaturally purely for money and human entertainment is never good. It doesn't teach humans about the animals, it doesn't teach people to respect the animals....it teaches kids that animals are a commodity that can essentially be bought and used however you please and just for laughs and then disposed of when they become old and non-showable.
If you want your kids to experience tigers, take them to a zoo or rent a Nat Geo movie to screen showing them in their natural environments. If you want to see alligators, there's alligator theme-parks where the gators are left to their own devices while you quietly observe. If you want to see whales, go whale watching where at least they can get away if they want and are in the wild.