But at Bowmanville Zoo, lion hug you.
From the Toronto Star (check it out--there's video of the whole thing):
A martial arts teacher knocked over by a lion during a photo shoot at Bowmanville Zoo says she is happy to have come away with four broken ribs and a bloodied lung.....
The photo session organized by the Star-owned magazine Desi Life produced a successful cover photo for the March-April issue, to be published tomorrow. But from the beginning, the 180 kilogram beast proved playful and not entirely under the control of its two minders....
This was one of those moments in my life where I sorta thought, WTF?
No, seriously, WTF???
I mean, isn't this what Photoshop is for? Why were they doing this shoot with a lion that obviously wasn't in the handler's control? They treated this beast like it was a big dog.
Guys, I have news for you: that's a LION. A large male lion can weigh up to 550 lbs. Your dinky nylon leash wouldn't hold a well-bred Great Dane, much less a savannah predator that's evolved over millions of years to become an effective killing machine.
Dude, that thing can take down water buffalo. And zebras. And elephants. What the hell made you think you could just whistle, toss Leo some kitty num-nums and expect him to fall into line?
Now, I'm not going to get into any kind of moral spiel about animal captivity or some feel-good argument that the lion was just playing. Which is was, though obviously he preferred UFC reenactments to Xbox 360.
The bottom line is this: respect Nature and its creatures. We can't presume to fully understand the inner workings of a wild creature, even if they've never lived in their natural habitat. Even house cats can go feral. Hell, humans can, too.
The wild is just that: wild. To think we as the "dominant species" can influence or control it would be arrogant and ignorant on our part.
1 comment:
I saw that video and I remember thinking how idiotic the woman performing martial arts looked when the lion took her down. Even with a gun, she wouldn't have had much of a chance if the lion was anything less than playful.
The trainer holding the leash was an idiot, too. He was sitting in a position that made him incapable of stopping the lion from jumping the woman.
The whole video was demeaning to everyone involved.
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