Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters

Animals torn to pieces by lions in front of baying crowds: the spectator sport China DOESN'T want you to see

5th January 2008 - Danny Penman, Daily Mail – UK World News

The smiling children giggled as they patted the young goat on its head and tickled it behind the ears. Some of the more boisterous ones tried to clamber onto the animal's back but were soon shaken off with a quick wiggle of its bottom. It could have been a happy scene from a family zoo anywhere in the world but for what happened next. Children feed goats before the 'show' starts. One that has been 'bought' by a visitor is carried off.  

A man hoisted up the goat and nonchalantly threw it over a wall into a pit full of hungry lions. The poor goat tried to run for its life, but it didn't stand a chance. The lions quickly surrounded it and started tearing at its flesh.

"Oohs" and "aahs" filled the air as the children watched the goat being ripped limb from limb. Some started to clap silently with a look of wonder in their eyes. The scenes witnessed at Badaltearing Safari Park in China are rapidly becoming a normal day out for many Chinese families.

Once the goat is carried from its pen, it is swiftly thrown into the lion enclosure. Baying crowds now gather in zoos across the country to watch animals being torn to pieces by lions and tigers.

Just an hour's drive from the main Olympic attractions in Beijing, Badaling is in many ways a typical Chinese zoo. Next to the main slaughter arena is a restaurant where families can dine on braised dog while watching cows and goats being disembowelled by lions. ******

The zoo also encourages visitors to "fish" for lions using live chickens as bait. For just £2, giggling visitors tie terrified chickens onto bamboo rods and dangle them in front of the lions, just as a cat owner might tease their pet with a toy. The ravenous big cats quickly attack the goat and start to tear it limb from limb, all in the name of 'entertainment' for the Badaling zoo visitors

During one visit, a woman managed to taunt the big cats with a petrified chicken for five minutes before a lion managed to grab the bird in its jaws. The crowd then applauded as the bird flapped its wings pathetically in a futile bid to escape. The lion eventually grew bored and crushed the terrified creature to death.

The tourists were then herded onto buses and driven through the lions' compound to watch an equally cruel spectacle. The buses have specially designed chutes down which you can push live chickens and watch as they are torn to shreds. Once again, children are encouraged to take part in the slaughter. The lions tear the goat to pieces within seconds of landing in the enclosure.

"It's almost a form of child abuse," says Carol McKenna of the OneVoice animal welfare group. "The cruelty of Chinese zoos is disgusting, but think of the impact on the children watching it. What kind of future is there for China if its children think this kind of cruelty is normal? "In China, if you love animals you want to kill yourself every day out of despair."

But the cruelty of Badaling doesn't stop with animals apart. For those who can still stomach it, the zoo has numerous traumatised animals to gawk at. A pair of endangered moon bears with rusting steel nose rings are chained up in cages so small that they cannot even turn around. One has clearly gone mad and spends most of its time shaking its head and bashing into the walls of its prison.

There are numerous other creatures, including tigers, which also appear to have been driven insane by captivity. Predictably, they are kept in cramped, filthy conditions.

Zoos like this make me want to boycott everything Chinese," says Emma Milne, star of the BBC's Vets In Practice. "I'd like to rip out everything in my house that's made in China. I have big problems with their culture. "If you enjoy watching an animal die then that's a sad and disgusting reflection on you. "Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by their behaviour towards animals, as the value of human life is so low in China." ++++++++

East of Badaling lies the equally horrific Qingdao zoo. Here, visitors can take part in China's latest craze — tortoise baiting. Simply put, Chinese families now gather in zoos to hurl coins at tortoises. Legend has it that if you hit a tortoise on the head with a coin and make a wish, then your heart's desire will come true. It's the Chinese equivalent of a village wishing well. To feed this craze, tortoises are kept in barbaric conditions inside small bare rooms.

When giggling tourists begin hurling coins at them, they desperately try to protect themselves by withdrawing into their shells. But Chinese zoo keepers have discovered a way round this: they wrap elastic bands around the animals' necks to stop them retracting their heads.

"Tortoises aren't exactly fleet of foot and can't run away," says Carol McKenna. "It's monstrous that people hurl coins at the tortoises, but strapping their heads down with elastic bands so they can't hide is even more disgusting. "Because tortoises can't scream, people assume they don't suffer. But they do. I can't bear to think what it must be like to live in a tiny cell and have people hurl coins at you all day long."

Even worse is in store for the animals of Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village near Guilin in south-east China. Here, live cows are fed to tigers to amuse cheering crowds. During a recent visit, I watched in horror as a young cow was stalked and caught. Its screams and cries filled the air as it struggled to escape.

A wild tiger would dispatch its prey within moments, but these beasts' natural killing skills have been blunted by years of living in tiny cages. The tiger tried to kill — tearing and biting at the cow's body in a pathetic looking frenzy — but it simply didn't know how. Eventually, the keepers broke up the contest and slaughtered the cow themselves, much to the disappointment of the crowd.

Although the live killing exhibition was undoubtedly depressing, an equally disturbing sight lay around the corner: the "animal parade". Judging by the rest of the operation, the unseen training methods are unlikely to be humane, but what visitors view is bad enough. Tigers, bears and monkeys perform in a degrading "entertainment". Bears wear dresses, balance on balls and not only ride bicycles but mount horses too. The showpiece is a bear riding a bike on a high wire above a parade of tigers, monkeys and trumpet-playing bears.

Astonishingly, the zoo also sells tiger meat and wine produced from big cats kept in battery-style cages. Tiger meat is eaten widely in China and the wine, made from the crushed bones of the animals, is a popular drink. Although it is illegal, the zoo is quite open about its activities. In fact, it boasts of having 140 dead tigers in freezers ready for the plate.

In the restaurant, visitors can dine on strips of stir-fried tiger with ginger and Chinese vegetables. Also on the menu are tiger soup and a spicy red curry made with tenderised strips of big cat. And if all that isn't enough, you can dine on lion steaks, bear's paw, crocodile and several different species of snake. "Discerning" visitors can wash it all down with a glass or two of vintage wine made from the bones of Siberian tigers. The wine is made from the 1,300 or so tigers reared on the premises. The restaurant is a favourite with Chinese Communist Party officials who often pop down from Beijing for the weekend.

China's zoos claim to be centres for education and conservation. Without them, they say, many species would become extinct.

This is clearly a fig leaf and some would call it a simple lie. Many are no better than "freak shows" from the Middle Ages and some are no different to the bloody tournaments of ancient Rome. "It's farcical to claim that these zoos are educational," says Emma Milne. "How can you learn anything about wild animals by watching them pace up and down inside a cage? You could learn far more from a David Attenborough documentary."

However pitiful the conditions might be in China's zoos, there are a few glimmers of hope. It is now becoming fashionable to own pets in China. The hope is that a love for pets will translate into a desire to help animals in general. This does appear to be happening, albeit slowly.

One recent MORI opinion poll discovered that 90 per cent of Chinese people thought they had "a moral duty to minimise animal suffering". Around 75 per cent felt that the law should be changed to minimise animal suffering as much as possible.

In 2004, Beijing proposed animal welfare legislation which stipulated that "no one should harass, mistreat or hurt animals". It would also have banned animal fights and live feeding shows. The laws would have been a huge step forward. But the proposals were scrapped following stiff opposition from vested interests and those who felt China had more pressing concerns. And this is the central problem for animal welfare in China: its ruling elite is brutally repressive and cares little for animals.

Centuries of rule by tyrannical emperors and bloody dictators have all but eradicated the Buddhist and Confucian respect for life and nature. As a result, welfare groups are urging people not to go to Chinese zoos if they should visit the Olympics, as virtually every single one inflicts terrible suffering on its animals. "They should tell the Chinese Embassy why they are refusing to visit these zoos,' says Carol McKenna of OneVoice. "If a nation is great enough to host the Olympic Games then it is great enough to be able to protect its animals."

Comments: I'm so upset with the actions with the Chinese people and their zoo. I could only hope that their employees or visitors fall into the lions den. Then, maybe things could change for the innocent beautiful animals.

I will not purchase another thing made in China and I will forward this story to all of my friends in hopes that they will too.  Boycott products made in China.  Boycott the 2008 Olympics.

I have for a long time been aware of the horrors inflicted on animals by the Chinese, and hoped that one day someone would be brave enough to show the world and those who deal with the Chinese exactly what is happening. Thank you "Daily Mail" for the truth.

This makes me weep. What a disgusting "culture".

We agree with all of the above. How this could possibly be construed as entertainment when it is beyond heartless and cruel is anybody’s guess. The Chinese are known world-wide for their brutality and appalling disrespect for all creatures.  And the children seem just as cold-blooded. We must keep fighting to stop these atrocities not only in China, but world-wide.

TAKE ACTION; ORGANIZE DEMONSTRATIONS - ANYTHING TO STOP ANIMAL EXPLOITATION, CRUELTY AND ABUSE.  THE POWER OF THE INTERNET IS A VALUABLE TOOL IN ATTAINING THE GOAL OF ANIMAL RIGHTS!

Bear in high-wire motorbike stunt and example of China's animal cruelty

09 Aug 2010 Peter Foster in Beijing telegraph.co.uk

The image is one of a number of pictures released by the British charity Animals Asia, others show bears being forced to box, toothless tigers riding on the back of horses, pigs being pushed off a 10ft diving board and monkeys performing handstands on the horns of a goat.

They are included in a report, released in Hong Kong, which found widespread maltreatment of animals at 13 safari parks and zoos across China that were visited by their representatives between over the past 12 months. The scenes are expected to intensify calls for China to speed up the enactment of its first ever animals rights law, a draft proposal of which was submitted to the authorities earlier this year but is yet to receive official approval.

David Neale, Animals Asia's animal welfare director, said that many of the animals were often brutalised during training for their "tricks" and kept in unsanitary, cramped conditions when away from public display. "The animals are housed in small, barren, concrete enclosures often in darkened rooms at the back of the performance areas away from the visitors," the report said, "Many of the animals have no visible access to water.

Animals have no access to a shelter to hide from individuals within their enclosure, and no attempts are made to meet the behavioural needs of these species." Mr Neale added: "Animal performances portray the animal to the public in a humiliating way that does not promote empathy and respect. There is little educational value in seeing animals in conditions that do not resemble their natural habitat.

"Teaching animals to perform inappropriate tricks does nothing to educate the public or foster respect for animals. These performances teach the public nothing except for the animals' size, shape and colour" China is increasingly aware of its poor image abroad for animal welfare, and last week the country's State Forestry Administration (SFA) launched a campaign to stop animals being abused for profit and public display.

However, animal rights experts said it would take time to change public attitudes, with it being common to see animal displays that would be considered cruel by most Western audiences drawing large and enthusiastic crowds. The vastness of China and a lack of funds to compensate the owners whose livelihoods depend on the animals 'working', also made it difficult to enforce new regulations.

Within days of the recent SFA announcement, for example, Chinese newspapers reported that Beijing's zoo was still allowing Lele, a young chimpanzee, to pose for photographs with visitors at £2 per time. Staff at the zoo explained that plans to cancel the chimp's appearances had been delayed by legal considerations because its owner had a contract with the zoo.

Comment: Whether the exploitation and mistreatment of animals occurs in your community or elsewhere in the world, take action. It’s up to all of us individually and collectively to take a stand and bring about justice for the silent victims of man’s atrocities. Silence and apathy enables the slavery and oppression.

June 7, 2017 Video Shows Live Donkey Being Fed To Tigers In Chinese Zoo Dispute

Facts About Cruelty to Animals in Asia | Animals Asia https://www.animalsasia.org/us/facts-about-cruelty-to-animals-in-asia.html

Comment: The cruelty of captivity. A life of confinement and profound despondency has become the ultimate reality of zoo animals depriving them of their natural habitats, needs, and freedom. From psychological disorders to poor health and reduced life spans, zoo animals are at the mercy of incompetent managements, unsuitable living conditions, abuses, and other mistreatment. Boycott cruelty!

“All animals, including humans, have a right to lives of dignity and respect, without forced intrusions.” Marc Bekoff

That the awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world's history. R. Edward Freeman

“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality

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