For the clueless, find out more about Tigra here.
...But the main point of this post is more about the alleged tiger abuse in Malaysia actually!Yes! There's this video in YouTube, "Tiger being abused to earn money" which is well needless to say, about the abuse of the supposedly protected animal at A’Famosa Resort, Malacca.
I reckon it did happen at that resort. And just take a look at how badly the (bad) publicity was handled:
"Warmest Greetings From A'Famosa Resort
We're referring to your e-mail on regards of the video shared on www.youtube.com
We would like make things clear that we never druged any of the animal for entertainment sake. The tiger shown in the video was just merely lazy and it's was their nature to do so. We practice a standard level in handling the animals.
However, rest assure that we had stop the photography session with the tigers due to the public & management concern of the tigers welfare. We appreciated your feedback which had been forwarded to management for their action to be taken.
Thank You.
Eric Ong."
From Facebook, "Response from A'Famosa Marketing Team".
Yeah right. It's just a lazy tiger, sure! Where is Amber Chia, no, I mean Tigra, when you need one?!
A Malaysian wildlife park came under fire Sunday from wildlife activists over a video posted on YouTube showing an apparently drugged tiger being prodded and poked for the amusement of visitors.
The two-minute clip shows the tiger lying on a slab at a wildlife park in the Afamosa resort while a handler invites visitors walking around it to take pictures with the animal.
The handler then prods and pokes the big cat to force it to pose and even uses his knee to jab its head into an upright pose for a photograph.
Click here to find out more!
'This is horrible and a disgrace that an animal is treated in this fashion. We must stop such abuse and the perpetrators must be punished,' Friends of the Earth Malaysia president S.M. Idris told AFP.
Wildlife trade watchdog TRAFFIC criticised the park's use of captive tigers for entertainment.
'If they acquire tigers for this use, it gives Malaysia a very bad reputation as it shows the park is using the tigers for entertainment instead of educational purposes,' senior officer Kanitha Krishnasamy told AFP.
Afamosa resort general manager Allan Chee denied the tiger was abused at the park, which has more than 20 tigers and numerous other species.
'There was no abuse to the tiger, the tiger was just drowsy and lazy after being fed and so was being prodded by the handler to get into position,' he told AFP.
He said the park in southern Malacca state prided itself on its animal performances, with elephants playing football and others allowed to roam freely.
However, state wildlife and national parks head Abdul Rahim Othman told AFP the park had been warned over having such photo sessions with animals which can be viewed as abuse.
'We have warned them and will carry out further investigations and if they continue to violate our warnings, we can take action against them including pulling their licences,' he said.
Just 3,200 tigers are believed to remain in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 a century ago.
From Asiaone, "Malaysian wildlife park under fire over Tiger video".
