Tigers Aren’t Windup Toys
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UPDATE: The deadline has passed to weigh in on the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision about keeping tigers safe from animal abusers, but we will post an update as soon as the decision is announced.
The following blog was originally posted September 9, 2011
One thing that you have to say about the notoriously abusive Hawthorn Corporation, which supplies animals for use in circuses and other shows, is that it has some nerve. Despite being cited more than 40 times for violations like feeding tigers moldy and inedible food, confining tigers for months on end in transport cages, denying them exercise or space to move around, and failing to provide veterinary care, Hawthorn has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to force tigers to endure even more suffering by carting them around the world.
You would think that such an application, coming from a company that has accumulated $272,500 in penalties for violations of federal law, would be immediately tossed in the trash, but just to be on the safe side, PETA is appealing to the FWS to deny the application.
On a related note, a loophole in federal regulations has allowed animal abusers to harm, export, and sell endangered tigers without federal oversight if the tigers are considered “generic”—mixed breeds, in other words. The FWS is working to close that exemption.
Please ask the FWS to deny Hawthorn’s application to import and exploit more tigers and voice your support to protect all tigers, “mutts” and purebreds alike.
Written by Jennifer O’Connor
