I feel like the standard zookeeper line would be “because these are apex predators, and their presence would have an incredibly adverse effect on any ecosystem they’re introduced to”.
This is one of the things I don’t understand about people who think having tigers as “pets” is a good idea.
I’ve had a cat randomly decided to latch on to my arm, claws, teeth, and all a few times. Not a lot. Just a few. Obviously I was fine. Now imagine this house cat weighs 450 lbs. Not super confident that I’m going to be fine in that scenario.
Well, cats learn how to bite without causing damage. Tigers aren’t socialized with humans, so they learn the levels of bite appropriate to other tigers.
You’re saying that like cats socialized with humans never once bite or scratch hard enough to harm. It’s not the thousands of play bites that are the problem, it’s when they randomly crunch down and unmake your shoulder instead of making you dig out the neosporin.
Cat is absolutely capable of biting your finger off, yet when socialised properly they limit themselves with occasional excited scratching and light biting.
But just to be clear, I’m not advocating for having a tiger as a per.
A feral cat is nothing to trifle with. My mom brought a cat home once from her coworker but it was a street cat that freaked the fuck out in the new environment. Almost severed one of the tendons in my mother’s hand and in the end it took 3 full grown men to get it out of our house.
That’s my point, 99.99% gentle is fine when they’re mostly harmless, the problem with large predators is that .01% event puts you in the hospital if it doesn’t kill you outright. A tiger’s excited pounce can break half the bones in your body, an excited swipe can disembowel. If those little kickers start going, you lose everything below the waist.
Having large predators for a pet pretty much always ends badly unless they get taken away in time.
Even the most well trained and socialized cats will still bite or scratch sometimes when excited or startled. Pretty much every cat owner has a story where their cat suddenly zoomed across them with claws out or randomly chomped instead of play biting. It’s going to happen eventually, and that goes double with an undomesticated predator.
There’s a reason why zookeepers are extremely careful with large cats, even when they raised them from cubs. No amount of professional socialization makes them safe.
Alternate timeline: “You can’t have them because they’re unpredictable and might claw your eyes out without provocation.”
This timeline: “WTF happened to you?”
“My cat decided to wake me up by clawing my eyes out.”
“Hahaha!”
I feel like the standard zookeeper line would be “because these are apex predators, and their presence would have an incredibly adverse effect on any ecosystem they’re introduced to”.
This is one of the things I don’t understand about people who think having tigers as “pets” is a good idea. I’ve had a cat randomly decided to latch on to my arm, claws, teeth, and all a few times. Not a lot. Just a few. Obviously I was fine. Now imagine this house cat weighs 450 lbs. Not super confident that I’m going to be fine in that scenario.
Well, cats learn how to bite without causing damage. Tigers aren’t socialized with humans, so they learn the levels of bite appropriate to other tigers.
You’re saying that like cats socialized with humans never once bite or scratch hard enough to harm. It’s not the thousands of play bites that are the problem, it’s when they randomly crunch down and unmake your shoulder instead of making you dig out the neosporin.
Cat is absolutely capable of biting your finger off, yet when socialised properly they limit themselves with occasional excited scratching and light biting.
But just to be clear, I’m not advocating for having a tiger as a per.
A feral cat is nothing to trifle with. My mom brought a cat home once from her coworker but it was a street cat that freaked the fuck out in the new environment. Almost severed one of the tendons in my mother’s hand and in the end it took 3 full grown men to get it out of our house.
That’s my point, 99.99% gentle is fine when they’re mostly harmless, the problem with large predators is that .01% event puts you in the hospital if it doesn’t kill you outright. A tiger’s excited pounce can break half the bones in your body, an excited swipe can disembowel. If those little kickers start going, you lose everything below the waist.
Having large predators for a pet pretty much always ends badly unless they get taken away in time.
A properly socialized cat will not be biting and scratching you. That’s a skill issue
Even the most well trained and socialized cats will still bite or scratch sometimes when excited or startled. Pretty much every cat owner has a story where their cat suddenly zoomed across them with claws out or randomly chomped instead of play biting. It’s going to happen eventually, and that goes double with an undomesticated predator.
There’s a reason why zookeepers are extremely careful with large cats, even when they raised them from cubs. No amount of professional socialization makes them safe.