I threw open my hotel room curtains to see a lioness pacing up/down her small cage then clawing desperately at the bars. She is being held here for several weeks and has already endured nights of blasting live music and loud booms/bangs from the fireworks.
Watching her repeatedly pace up and down, you could see her lonelineness, frustration and boredom at the lack of control over her life. Studies show that when captive animals are deprived of their natural homelands, social structures and an outlet for their natural skills, they develop this abnormal psychotic behaviour, slowly going mad. Similar in to institutional patients held in mental institutions, rocking back/forth.
The Rose Festival website promotes their use of 'rare exotic animals' as a feature of this celebration. The city itself IS wonderful and the roses are divine, there's no doubt about that. But this petition is asking the authorities to move with the times and not use ANY exotic and endangered animals at its events.
Please sign and share this petition to let the authorities know this archaic caged cruelty has no place at today's funfairs and celebrations. We simple won’t support events that use exotic animals for ‘entertainment’.
In the wild a lion's territory may include 100 square miles (259 square kilometers) of grasslands, scrub, or open woodlands: National Geographic.
