White Tigers on TV Show

To:  The Producer of the Mike and Juliet Show yourstory@mandjshow.com

I would like to see you do a Did You Know show on the fact that the only way to produce white tigers is through severe inbreeding. 

We are running an online poll and 64% of our 413 respondents admitted that they did not know.  We are guessing that is why Mike, Juliet and your producer featured Kay and Clay Rosaire, who are fifth generation carnies that breed white tigers and keep them in tiny concrete cells in their back yard in Sarasota, on your show Oct. 26.  A lot of people also do not know that real sanctuaries do not breed animals and they do not take them out in public and portray them as cute and cuddly pets.  There is a federal bill pending right now that would stop that practice and it is called Haley’s Act and named after a 17 year old who was mauled to death at one of these pseudo sanctuaries while posing with a tiger. 

The tiger on your show was represented by Kay Rosaire as being a Bengal tiger but there isn’t one pure bred Bengal tiger in the entire U.S. because all of the zoos preyed upon the ignorance of the public and inbred their Bengal tigers to produce the white coat colors to the point that the cubs were all being born dead.  They then began cross breeding Bengal and Siberian tigers so that some of the offspring would live, but they are all genetically unsound and usually die young.  As long as shows like yours continue to promote these back yard breeders, who do nothing for real conservation, there will be a steady flow of baby big cats to be used, abused and then either discarded for killed. 

I realize that serious issues of animal abuse are not the kind of topics that your show is geared to cover, but you could do the right thing for the animals by not allowing people to bring wild animals into the studio.  I know that the cute factor is hard to resist, but if you had any idea how ugly life will soon be for the baby tiger and lions that were on your show today you might not be able to sleep at night. 

To find out more about white tigers:

http://bigcatrescue.org/white_tigers.htm   

To find out more about people who drag big cats out on leashes:

http://bigcatrescue.org/bigcatexhibition.htm

To find out more about how many big cat incidents, such as killings, maulings and escapes happen:

http://bigcatrescue.org/big_cat_news.htm

For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

an Educational Sanctuary home

to more than 100 big cats

12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625

813.493.4564 fax 885.4457

http://www.BigCatRescue.org    MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org

Sign our petition to protect tigers here:

http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=9952801&type=CU