My family and I went to the DuPage County Fair this past weekend. It is a pretty fun affair, there are a ton of activities. Even though the area we live is not very rural, there is a full on animal exhibition with people showing off their hogs, sheep, foul, and horses. In addition there is a rodeo, a carnival with a fair number of rides for kids and adults and then there was a guy I will call Cat-Man.
There was an announcement over the PA that there would be a big-cat demonstration in about 20 minutes. The announcement provided that this would be an opportunity to see a number of big cats, including two ligers (crosses between tigers and lions). So, we dutifully trekked down there and got some pretty good seats on a set of bleachers. At this point, it was near 1 pm, and the sun was beating down pretty hard. We were ok with the heat, because of the expectation of seeing ligers. Most of what I know about Ligers comes from the movie "Napolean Dynamite." Some species of animals can cross breed, the most well known example being a cross of a mule, an offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Often, this cross breed produces desirable traits that are not found in that of either of the parent.
A Liger is the offspring of a male Lion and a female tigress. For whatever reason, the offspring is typically larger than either of the parents, so you end up with a very big cat. The entire display was a small fenced in area in front of a large trailer. I was a bit concerned that we were going to be extremely close to these Ligers when they were displayed. In one corner of the fenced in area there was a 6 month old tiger cub, that was putting on quite a show climbing anything and everything it could. Although it was probably about the size of a rottweiller, it had giant paws that showed it had a lot of growing left to do. About 5 minutes before 1, we heard an announcement that the show was just about ready to begin. I did not realize it at the time that the term "show" was very loosely applied.
As the clock ticked past 1, a gentleman in the typical wildlife gear showed up. He was slightly overweight, wearing short khaki shorts, the typical green/khaki button down short sleeve shirt and the typical safari cat. He then launched into this long speech about working with large cats his entire life. He discussed how much food big cats eat and how expensive it was to feed them. Then it got a bit absurd. He launched into a bit of a tirade against PETA and other big organizations urging none of us to donate to them. He insisted that they had way too much money lined up for pensions for the board of directors and spent something like 2 cents out of every dollar donated to actually rescue animals. Not surprisingly, he advocated that we should donate to small independent operations like his.
Then he dropped this bombshell. He let us know that he would not bring the Ligers out. Rather, they were available to view through a small gate for a small fee. At this point we had been sitting for about 15 minutes. He tried to rationalize that he had yet to be injured by a big cat, and he wasn't going to start now. The problem with that logic is that he billed himself as a big cat show. I could say that I have a zero record of injury from snakes, but I don't bill myself as someone that runs a reptile show.
I wish I could say that we left in disgust. But we didn't. We paid our 4 bucks and went back there to see the Ligers. There they were, both lying down. One was asleep the other was awake and looking at us. It was pretty sad, it was a small enclosure, not much bigger than the animals themselves and all they could do was look at us as we stared.
It is absurd for people to keep animals like these as pets. First of all, the offspring is entirely human created. Ligers do not exist in the wild. Why create an animal that is only to be used for human amusement? This exhibitor provided that in order to generate enough money to care for these big cats, he and his wife were on the road most of the year. Sadly, this means that the cramped storage trailer that we saw these guys in was probably the rule rather than the exception. You cannot simply go to a big field and let these guys out to get some exercise. These animals will never be free, it is just a question of how big their prisons are.
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