Adventures Near and Far!: Chiang Mai (Tiger Kingdom)

This is something that I was super pumped about since Phuket when we looked into doing something like this. And let me say, we looked into it, extensively. There is a lot of rumors and accusations on how the animals are treated in this Tiger enclosures. Are they drugged? Are the mishandled? Is it really safe? Do the trainers hurt them to enforce not endangering tourists? Etc.

Here is my two cents on the issue. I have worked with horses fairly extensively for three summers. In no way do I claim to be an expert on animal issues or how animals should be treated, but these tigers seemed happy. Yes sleepy, they are cats and therefore sleep most of the day. We went early in the morning, when they are fairly active, and you could definitely tell they are NOT drugged. They were playful and sometimes a little intimidating. Once or twice the tiger eyed me up (for a snack I think!) and the trainer knocked him on the nose with a pole. Not hard, but enough to enforce the idea that that was unwanted behavior. And immediately the cat would walk away or settle down. This to me seemed normal, as someone who worked with horses force (obviously not excess) is sometimes the best way to communicate with animals. People tend to forget that this is how they communicate with each other! When a cat does something wrong the other cat will not politely ask him not to do it again, but most likely swipe him across the nose. So why then should we communicate with them otherwise?

The other question that came up was should these animals be tamed as they are wild animals. And my answer to that is as humans we use many animals. Horses only being one example. How is this really any different? If we teach horse to carry people, what is wrong with teaching tigers to allow people to pet them? If people are upset about the tigers they should be upset about horseback riding and be against that as well! But somehow I doubt these same people are.....

The only problem that I had was the enclosures were sometimes on the small side and sometimes only concrete. This ideally would be rectified, but then again many zoos have the same issues. Lots of these tigers had water to play in, friends to play with (although not too many in the same cage), and some space. Yes ideally they would have huge enclosures, and hopefully that is something the Tiger Kingdom will look into (though I doubt it). All in all it was a really cool experience and I don't think the animals are being mistreated in this particular location! Anyway here are the cool Tiger Pictures!