[USA] Disaster Strikes Again for Worker in Shambala Preserve

[Guest guest]

First the news:

 

This week at the Shambala Preserve of Akton California, located 40 miles north

of Los

Angleles, was the scene of a handler mauling by Alexandra, a 450 lb Bengal

tiger. This

preserve was founded by actress Tippi Hedren (of Alfred Hitchcock fame) in the

early 70's,

as a sanctuary for wild animals no longer able to be kept by American " exotic

pet " owners.

Alexander himself was acquired from the now defunct exotic-pet breeding center

called

Tiger Rescue, closed down in 2003 by the California Fish and Game authorities

for animal

abuse. At this location, wild cats and reptiles were found in the home of John

Wineheart

(owner of Tiger Rescue), stashed in air conditioning ducts and locked in

bathrooms.

 

Chris Orr, while cleaning the tiger compound with Alexander the Tiger (not in a

holding

cell), was leaning over, thinking the animal was resting, and then jumped from

behind. He

was dragged throughout the compound for sometime until another handler could

rescue

him, and is " going to be in the hospital for a very long time; he lost a lot of

blood and his

jaw is broken. "

 

Tippi Hedren was interviewed on the John and Ken Show, KFIAM in LA, and had this

to say

when asked questions by these two shock jocks:

 

Q. How many wild pets are there out there?

Tippi: Tens of thousands, there is no way to find an exact number, as there are

no

requirements for registration.

 

Q. Why not send rescued wild pets back to the wild?

Tippi: You can't do that with a predator, there was no mother to teach them, and

they

would not survive in the wild, as they would just walk up to a person when they

were

hungry.

 

Q. Where do your wild animals (animals turned over to Shambala Sanctuary) come

from?

Tippi: All over (America): people turn them over to us when they can't handle

them once

they are grown.

 

Q. Aren't there any laws against having a tiger or lion in your apartment?

Tippi: Most states have no laws prohibiting ownership...but there is a ban on

interstate

transportation of exotic pets, signed into federal law by George Bush in 2003.

 

Tippi Hedren is currently co-authoring a bill that will be presented to the US

Senate that

will attempt to ban ownership of exotic pets.

 

Now the commentary:

 

While I loved Tippi as star of the Alfred Hitchcock movie " The Birds " (see note

on this

movie below) back in the `60s, I can't really get behind her on this, or her

sanctuary. Why

not? Isn't the Shambala Sanctuary a good thing you ask? Well, if you ask Chris

Orr (if he

will ever be able to speak again) you may get the same answer: no, it's not a

good thing

that sanctuaries are needed for abused " exotic pets " i.e. wild animals breed in

captivity.

Her particular sanctuary is only a patch on one symptom of the root disease: the

fact that

Americans are allowed to breed and own wild animals, whose parents were either

smuggled illegally into America or acquired from American Zoos no longer needing

their

services as an amusement for the American public. And the fact that the Shambala

Sanctuary is a haven for Hollywood seeking " wild animal actors " for movies puts

me off

this idea completely.

 

Let's break it down. 1) Hollywood promotes the idea through movies that wild

animals are

lovable fur balls that can be domesticated, or at least can talk and interact

with humans on

a personal level; 2) The American viewing public is stupid enough to believe

this, and

hence tens of thousands or more have purchased a wild animal thinking it would

make a

great pet, and 3) these " pets " acquired from shady breeding companies such as

Tiger

Rescue, wind up biting the arms off their children or worse, and are then either

destroyed

or sent to a sanctuary like Tippi's.

 

So you see we have come full circle. Tippi's tigers wind up on screens in the

movie halls,

and the cycle is reinforced for generations to come, with preventive measures

now needed

to be passed by the Congress of the United States, which will sit (perhaps

forever) right

along side bills on healthcare and social-security reform.

 

The use of wild animals in industry must stop, whether it's the medicinal organ

industry in

China or the movie industry of Hollywood. Using wild animals for anything at

all must

stop. They are not our play toys, research tools, slaves, or screen stars.

Please do

whatever you can to prevent the human use (which all senses is just abuse) of

wild

animals, and encourage your local conservationists to work harder in this

regard, to 1)

keep wild animals in wild habitats and 2) return wild animals raised in

captivity to wild

habitats. Do not be fooled by pacifist rhetoric that states " a wild captive

animal is better

off " in a preserve such as the one owned by Tippi Hendren. Just ask yourself

this: which is

more dignified for a tiger, to die in the jungle at the teeth of another wild

cat, or to die by

slow starvation in the air-conditioning duct of a stupid human being living in

southern

California?

 

Jigme Gaton

animalNEPAL

www.animalnepal.org

 

 

[Promised note on the movie " The Birds " by Alfred Hitchcock, a 1963 horror

flick: This film

was one of the more influential films in my life because one, this film inspired

me to study

film-making, and two, made me so afraid of crows and other birds that as a young

teen I

avoided them like the plague. I found out how the film was made while in

high-school,

and how Tippi Hedren was told mechanical birds would be used for the wild bird

attack

scenes, but instead, live birds were hurled at her by stage crews for weeks

during the

shooting. She even suffered a bird bite and almost lost her eye, and was later

haunted by

nightmares filled with flapping birds. I made myself a promise then: never to

use an

animal against its own will, and to this day I never have.]