White Tigers!

So white tigers are cute, right?

Or maybe not what they seem to be? How many of you have seen white tigers like this….

Most probably never. Welcome to the white tiger trade.

Zoo’s only ever let you see what they want you to see. The truth of the matter is white tigers are totally man made and should not exists to the extent they do now. White tigers can exist in the wild, the colouration is cause by a double recessive gene, but if a white tiger is born the mother will generally abandon or kill it, the mothers priority is the protection of herself and her other cubs and a white tiger would draw to much attention to them.
So it all started in the 1950’s when a white tiger cub was spotted in the wild and hunters saw this striking animal and saw mega dollar. The cub was captured and raised with the prospect of breeding. Once the cub became old enough, the breeding began. The tiger was bred continuously to orange tigers, however no white tigers ever came about. It was then that this tiger was inbred to relatives until eventually white cubs were born.
Yes, it is what you are thinking, every white tiger you see now originates from that one white tiger named Mohan. Its no wonder they are born with genetic defaults such as a cleft palate, cross eyes and deformed features. Did you know for every “perfect” white tiger born, about 40 orange tigers and 5 imperfect white tigers are also born, these are also known as ‘throw away tigers’. You may be thinking, so what happens to them? There are many answers to this, they could be neglected, fed on dog food and left in a tiny cage for the rest of their life, sold on to pet homes or put in canned hunts. For those of you who don’t know what a canned hunt is, the tiger is put into a cage and someone pays to shoot it. Yes I said it, the tiger is shot in a cage as a trophy. I don’t know if this makes there balls look big , but personally I cant see it.
An imperfect white tiger can only have brown stripes instead of black and will still face this uncertain future.
So why do you only see “perfect” white tigers? Think about it, why would any zoo want you to see what goes on behind the scenes, to see how unnatural these animals really are? But aren’t zoos meant to be conserving species? Maybe in this case, not. The white tiger is a classic example to show zoos are only a money making facility and generally don’t help the conservation of animals at all.

So next time you take a trip to the zoo, step back and think, should I really pay for this? Your money is helping edge this trade further and allowing this animals to suffer.