Free to good owner: one tiger
Created: 2009-11-4 15:10:53
Author:Wang Xiang
A MAN in Jiangsu Province is looking for a zoo that can accept an old tiger he saved from whipping in a central China circus, Yangtze Evening Post reported today.
Sima Huijun’s donation was turned down yesterday by a zoo in his hometown, Danyang City in Jiangsu Province. The city zoo said it can not afford to raise such big animals as a tiger, which would cost at least 2,000 yuan (US$290) a day.
Sima bought the tiger last month from a circus in Henan Province where he attended a Buddhist School. The devoted Buddhist said he was shocked to see the jungle king limping on an infected leg from being whipped.
The circus owner told Sima it could not afford to treat the tiger’s leg or even food for the beast. The tiger had to perform to win chickens spectators would buy for it, said the circus boss.
Sima bought the tiger for 100,000 yuan with the idea of donating it to a zoo.
The director of a zoo in Sima’s hometown surnamed Tang said it can feed animals such as monkeys, yet they could not fulfill a tiger’s stomach.
The local park authority told Sima the city’s best zoo would have trouble affording to keep the tiger.
A zoo in the provincial capital of Nanjing said they could accommodate the tiger but they still need approval from the provincial forestry authority.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200911/20091104/article_418466.htm
