Lion in Cage for 13 years Released, Feels Grass and Dirt for the First Time...

I have another comment about zoos and even places like SeaWorld.

There are a lot of people for whom the animal is NOT real and has no value until they can actually see and experience it directly.

I taught a lot of kids like that. You could show them nature docs all day, and those animals weren't real. Take them to the zoo and let them stand across from an elephant or a giraffe or a lion ... and suddenly those concepts on screen had meaning and tangibility, reality.

And this goes aside from the fact that the knowledge the keepers and scientists earn working with animals at places like zoos and even SeaWorld can be put to good use when disasters befall wild animals. Animals can be rehabilitated and saved who might not otherwise survive because there are people who have direct knowledge of how to handle them and save them.

At least it's not the days when study meant killing specimens for stuffing.

That was just amazing to watch.


Thanks.

originally posted by: ketsuko
I have another comment about zoos and even places like SeaWorld.

There are a lot of people for whom the animal is NOT real and has no value until they can actually see and experience it directly.

I taught a lot of kids like that. You could show them nature docs all day, and those animals weren't real. Take them to the zoo and let them stand across from an elephant or a giraffe or a lion ... and suddenly those concepts on screen had meaning and tangibility, reality.

And this goes aside from the fact that the knowledge the keepers and scientists earn working with animals at places like zoos and even SeaWorld can be put to good use when disasters befall wild animals. Animals can be rehabilitated and saved who might not otherwise survive because there are people who have direct knowledge of how to handle them and save them.

At least it's not the days when study meant killing specimens for stuffing.

I agree with showing the kids.

We got to do better giving these animals a proper enclosure.

a reply to: alienjuggalo

Everytime i see lions i think of christian the lion.

watching this may make you cry.

This was truly an amazing bond between these two guys and the lion they raised. For the lion to recognize them after all those years really is a testament that animals do have feelings. Even though I've seen this video before, it still brings a tear to my eye.

In an ideal world? That lion would have been living out his life, however long it was, free and clear. As it should be.

But the world is not ideal. Not hardly.

There's a thread on ATS right now about the White Rhino. How many of them are left in the wild? Snow leopards?

Florida panther? Tasmanian tiger? Oh, right, either few, or none.

Zoos, as abhorrent as many of you find them, serve a purpose. They help to maintain a breeding population so that future generations of them can, maybe, be returned to that wild existence we'd so like for them to have. Minus the poachers. Minus the environmental changes that are so detrimental to so many species in the world.

They serve a purpose. They should, however, provide a healthy, clean environment, and be subject to stringent standards.

Now animal in circuses? That's a whole other thing entirely.

a reply to: whyamIhere
Beautiful to watch, too bad it took all these years for it to happen but at least it did happen :-)
Thanks for sharing that great video with us. S&F
Regards, Iwinder

a reply to: alienjuggalo

Thanks for that!

I'd almost forgotten that story.

Somehow appropriate...

this reminds me of the chimps and their reaction to the first taste of being outside.

Amazing release and to hopes for getting to live the rest of his life in natural comfort.

Besides some of the vids shown, reminds me of the laboratory Beagles, freed from vivisection, getting to walk and be outside for the first time.

originally posted by: seagull
In an ideal world? That lion would have been living out his life, however long it was, free and clear. As it should be.

But the world is not ideal. Not hardly.

There's a thread on ATS right now about the White Rhino. How many of them are left in the wild? Snow leopards?

Florida panther? Tasmanian tiger? Oh, right, either few, or none.

Zoos, as abhorrent as many of you find them, serve a purpose. They help to maintain a breeding population so that future generations of them can, maybe, be returned to that wild existence we'd so like for them to have. Minus the poachers. Minus the environmental changes that are so detrimental to so many species in the world.

They serve a purpose. They should, however, provide a healthy, clean environment, and be subject to stringent standards.

Now animal in circuses? That's a whole other thing entirely.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Our outside cat came to live inside. She skipped twice and got all muddy and cold. The third time she ran out, she was begging at the door to come in quickly. She likes it in the house now, and she stays far away from the door when it is opened. She is sixteen or seventeen years old and knows what life is like outside with mosquitoes and flies always looking for lunch.

After a while this lion will be thinking, what the hell did I want to get out for, I want to go back and eat meat without having hair stuck in my teeth.

Reminds me of the riddle, "Why does the caged bird sing?"

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Dimithae

I tend to think God wants us to respect the entities we share earth with. To use animals when in need, but not just for sport. I have always detested zoos, circuses etc... But would not mind having a tiger as a hiking partner/pet(till he eats me).

This is pretty awesome. I've watched it like 5 times, thanks.

This is an amazing story, you expect the lion to hunt them or something. Reminds me of this starving Siberian Husking that was licking grease off my porch two weeks ago. I took it in for three days, the dog was a genius, obeyed perfectly. I pointed to its bed, and it would lay right down. When I found the owner and they showed up, the dogs reaction was priceless. The dog kept running back and forth like it was trying to introduce us. Too bad the owner showed up, I wanted to keep her

And cows too . . .

originally posted by: Dimithae
a reply to: whyamIhere

Genesis 1:28

God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Done a bang up job haven't we? We didn't just satisfy our blood lust with ruling. We had to take everything and destroy it as well. We will never learn until its all over.

Well, someone needs to play devil's advocate here.

Just how do you fill the earth with humans, subdue it, and rule over everything without an iron fist ??

You think it means to let everything be as it was ????

Nothing but harsh wilderness and never ending glory for animals ?

Sigh, people amaze me at how they can interpret things so single mindedly.

a reply to: chiefsmom
Here in Holland wild animals are banned from the circus.
We're a small country but it's a start.

a reply to: ParasuvO

Indigenous people have been able to live with the wild life,at least until they learned about capitalism.
Not to say they never killed any,they ate them just like we eat cows and pigs etc.But they took what they needed.There was always enough to reproduce with no problem. Now look at things.

in my opinion humanity is defined by the way it treats it's children, old people, and animals.

we're failing

These kind of videos always bring up tears to my eyes.

I understand why certain animals need to be protected for their own preservation. But when "we" spend billions-trillions yearly on warfare and other banalities, it's just sad that we can't create more suitable environments for endangered species to live in.

But then again we can't even take care of our own species. Just goes to show in what kind of fracked up "human" world we live in.

I truly hope that one day soon, humankind will take a good long look at what we've done to our planet and that we by then have the technology to rectify most of our mistakes. And hopefully not repeat these mistakes.

I just had to watch the following video again, to bring a little joy back:

That's why lions eat humans in the wild..

So touchingly to see how happy the small things in life can be...