I don't get it . . .

The Tigard Times did an article on WildCat Haven today and talked about how 2011 is our Ten year anniversary of doing rescue work. Which was nice, but in the very same newspaper is an article talking about how the Tigard High School will be bringing in a live tiger for the game on friday. Really? Are they kidding? Can you imagine a school  full of screaming kids and a tiger? It just blows me away that this is something that the school thinks is a good idea.  

“There’s going to be a live tiger,” said teacher Sue Suttich, standing in front of a group of 30 high school students.Her advanced sports marketing class hosts the event every year, and it was their idea to bring the tiger. The tiger comes from the family of a student, Suttich said, who offered to bring the tiger to the basketball game. As the school’s mascot, Suttich said that she has wanted to bring a tiger to the school for years, but this is the first time that one will actually be on hand at an event. “This is going to be way more special than any of the others,” she said.

Of course there is no other information about where the cat is coming from, but I've got a  pretty good idea. It's a small cat world out there and if the cat is coming from where I think it is, this is just the sort of thing this 'rescue' does.

Here are two reviews of the place I'm talking about:
"I was not impressed with this place. While it is neat that they have exotic animals (a lion, tiger, camel, porcupine..etc) they weren't well cared for. They were in small dirty cages and seemed distressed. One rabbit we saw had a vicious infection in it's ears. The place is supposedly an exotic animal rescue operation, could've fooled me. It was quite disturbing. My girlfriend and I were debating making a call to some agency to investigate their operation."

 

"Awful place, yes they do have exotic animals, which is cool. But it stinks so bad there, the cages are small and not well cared for. I felt sorry for these animals and wonder how they got a license to keep them. The animals were dirty and  some had very little shelter from the rain and cold. I will never go back to this place."

When is this going to end? When people stop thinking that wild animals are cool to bring as show and tell. What message is the staff at Tigard High School sending? That a wildcat is ok to bring to pep rallies and games? And by promoting this sort of stunt, exhibitors continue to breed and keep wild animals in small, filthy cages waiting for the next gig. It's all just too ridiculous and frustrating.