A couple facts:
- “Mike” is a rescue tiger that was illegally bred in captivity. They can’t “release him”, he’d die in the wild.
- He’s the 7th “Mike”. Since III they’ve all been donated rescue tigers that needed a home.
- Mike allows vets to learn from his care, and perform research. Big cats aren’t plentiful and live training on how to care for them is an important way for budding vets to learn
- the previous Mike’s all lived to approximately 2x their natural lifespan
As a caretaker of four cats I am both appaled by the current state of feline care for rare diseases and lack of understanding of their base instinctual needs, as well as the terrible mistreatment of big cats by both poachers in the wild and illegal breeders.
I applaud the work of these facilities to advance the understanding around these noble species, and truly hope that some of their research can help us keep more of them alive in the wild going forward.
