beasts-of-prey: I don’t know how to feel whenever I see pictures of white tigers on my dash. Repulsion? Disgust? If you’ve been following me you might have noticed that I don’t reblog them much.  I find the existence of white tigers to be a bit unsettling, actually. How many of you thought that the white tiger is a separate species of tiger? The truth of the matter is that they’re not - they’re just genetic anomalies. They can’t survive in the wild because of their colouring which doesn’t help with camouflage. They do occur naturally, but there are very few cases of them. So, humans obliged to “conserve” this non-species by breeding them in captivity. And because of the rarity of white tigers, this is done by severe inbreeding. Most white tigers are related. The small gene pool leaves white tigers with a myriad of health problems, such as crossed eyes, deafness, epilepsy and heart problems. I think it’s disgusting that humans are doing this just because they think white tigers look nice. White tigers are bred almost exclusively for entertainment purposes. Breeding white tigers often ends with disastrous results, as I mentioned above. The pretty ones we see on Tumblr are among a select few. I’ve wondered what happens to the deformed ones like the one pictured here. You never see them on display in zoos, do you? A source that I looked at to write this says that many cubs are “disposed of” if they’re not suitable for display. There probably is at least some truth in that. It’s terrible. And who created them in the first place? I’ve been meaning to write something like this for a while, because I think many people are unaware of the controversy that surrounds white tigers. Some of the comments in the source below have people saying that they thought white tigers are a tiger subspecies, or even that tigers turn white in the winter. White tigers are not a beautiful endangered species that we have to conserve. I just wanted wanted to give you all something to be aware about. Thanks for reading, and I hope you took something away with you from this little essay. photo source For more info, check out White Tiger Fraud from Big Cat Rescue.

beasts-of-prey:

I don’t know how to feel whenever I see pictures of white tigers on my dash. Repulsion? Disgust? If you’ve been following me you might have noticed that I don’t reblog them much. 

I find the existence of white tigers to be a bit unsettling, actually. How many of you thought that the white tiger is a separate species of tiger? The truth of the matter is that they’re not - they’re just genetic anomalies. They can’t survive in the wild because of their colouring which doesn’t help with camouflage. They do occur naturally, but there are very few cases of them. So, humans obliged to “conserve” this non-species by breeding them in captivity. And because of the rarity of white tigers, this is done by severe inbreeding. Most white tigers are related. The small gene pool leaves white tigers with a myriad of health problems, such as crossed eyes, deafness, epilepsy and heart problems.

I think it’s disgusting that humans are doing this just because they think white tigers look nice. White tigers are bred almost exclusively for entertainment purposes. Breeding white tigers often ends with disastrous results, as I mentioned above. The pretty ones we see on Tumblr are among a select few. I’ve wondered what happens to the deformed ones like the one pictured here. You never see them on display in zoos, do you? A source that I looked at to write this says that many cubs are “disposed of” if they’re not suitable for display. There probably is at least some truth in that. It’s terrible. And who created them in the first place?

I’ve been meaning to write something like this for a while, because I think many people are unaware of the controversy that surrounds white tigers. Some of the comments in the source below have people saying that they thought white tigers are a tiger subspecies, or even that tigers turn white in the winter. White tigers are not a beautiful endangered species that we have to conserve. I just wanted wanted to give you all something to be aware about. Thanks for reading, and I hope you took something away with you from this little essay.

photo source

For more info, check out White Tiger Fraud from Big Cat Rescue.