Stop Celebrities & Designers Endorsement of Animal Abuse
- by: Big Cat Rescue
- recipient: Bulgari, Julianne Moore, Fashion Industry, Congress
It's Fashion Week time, so advertisers are working non-stop to get your attention. The photo you see is currently featured on billboards and in many fashion magazines. The lion cubs grab your attention and you think, "how adorable they are!"
What you don't see is the terror when they were pulled prematurely from their mothers, stuck in a cage, loaded up for transport because their life as a photo prop begins and ends so quickly. Legally, their shelf life is short, so more and more are bred constantly. The babies are pulled from their mothers so that she can quickly be bred again.
You've heard about fairs, malls, circuses, backyard zoos, and traveling exhibits that use and abuse animals this way. Now, we're even seeing high profile celebrities and designers using them as nothing more than a marketing tool to sell products. They claim they're treated well on the set, but what happens to them after they leave?
Everyone hears when domestic animal shelters are overflowing with animals in need of adoption. The good news is that there is the possibility of a pet-loving home for them.
What is the option for these cubs when they've outlived their economic usefulness? The exhibitors DO NOT raise and keep all these baby lions and tigers. The expense is enormous, so how could they? And every accredited big cat rescue facility in this country is full.
These cubs will flow into the pipeline of illegal exotic animals traded for parts, for breeding, for a life of misery. The next time you see an ad for "Lion Steaks or Burgers" being served legally in restaurants throughout the US, you might think of these cubs and wonder if that was their fate. That's the reality behind this "adorable" picture.
This is why it's urgent that we pass national legislation banning the breeding of more big cats for lives spent in misery and in poorly regulated captivity. We must stop the flow.
Though they may have been well cared for on the set, it's what happens behind the scenes and in their future that is shocking and goes unchecked. They have a short shelf life as props and grow quickly.
You encourage runaway, irresponsible breeding by booking baby wild animals. You create the demand for breeders to constantly produce babies since that's where the money lies. We do not want more and more babies ripped from their mothers, like these 2 were, so the mother tigers can be bred over and over again simply to produce marketing tools for you.
We know that the breeder can't possibly afford to feed, house and care for dangerous carnivores like these for another 20 years. They wind up being traded for their parts, supplying exotic game meat purveyors, shot at canned hunting facilities by wealthy hunters, or languishing as a trophy pet in someone's backyard - simply so you have an eye catching ad. That's the sad reality.
We want a ban on breeding dangerous carnivores in this country since breeders, celebrities, designers, and corporations can't help but look at them as a money making commodity. One way or another, they end up promoting their abuse. It's hard to see the ramifications, the danger, and the cost society is forced to bear by uncontrolled breeding when all you see are cute baby exotic animals.
We do not have the financial resources in this country to adequately inspect and insure the welfare of these animals since our regulatory agencies are terribly understaffed. It's time to put an end to this abuse, once and for all, by banning the breeding completely and putting an end to their use as marketing tools.
Thank you for understanding their plight.
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