Diane Rehm and the tigers

[Anonymous]

I frequently listen to this show while doing morning chores around the house. Yesterday I thought I might learn something about conservation. Instead I learned about some narrow minded elitist perspectives on food tabus. It seems tigers are endangered, partly because of their value to oriental medicine. But tigers breed easily in captivity. I learned there are numerous "tiger farms" in asia (maybe china - don't recall exactly) and tourists can visit them and enjoy the beautiful animals... until they, Horror! Discover the true nature of these tiger farms! Yikes! How can you use such a beautiful animal for anything other than preserving my western notion of what is wild in the world! I was appalled by the guests' insinuation that 1)tigers should be preserved in the wild because well, they should be, and 2)even though tigers breed well in captivity and could be bred in captivity to provide tiger products for oriental medicine, this should not happen because (see #1). There was verrrrry little talk about land conservation. All talk was about the U.S. policing the 3rd world countries against poaching.
And there was no dissenting opinion. Only white anger at the thought of tigers being used for anything other than our own sense of beauty.
All I could think was Is this a slow news day? Thank you for the opportunity to vent.


http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-12-12/concerns-over-endangered-tiger-population

[Anonymous]

Tigers don't breed well in captivity. That's why your rant does not make sense. Go find out how many of those tigers are born and raised vs. captured, and you will understand.

[Anonymous]

Tigers DO breed EXTREMELY WELL in captivity. THat's why the show's guests did not make sense- because they do breed well in captivity.

http://www.tigers-world.com/tigers-in-captivity.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger#In_captivity