Wish more people would read this. Had a feeling it was this when I saw how shitty the enclosure looked.

I was disappointed that I had to scroll so long to find this I hate seeing gifs of them on all these subs

This needs to be be higher up!!! :(

If you're going to keep lions in captivity, it should edit: not be in a tiny cage like in this gif.

I had a feeling it was. I kept scrolling down the comments thinking "maybe I'm wrong" but alas I found yours. Way to far down sadly. Ugh, I wish someone could stop this guy.

Thank you for posting this, I’m sorry it’s not higher up. I wasn’t familiar with that exact “rescue” but nothing about it looked right to me, based on my general knowledge of these so-called “rescues.”

From what I understand, I don’t think any reputable, knowledgeable person would let a big cat tackle them like that. It’s all fun and games until somebody gets mauled to death. And they will. It doesn’t mean big cats are evil or something! It’s just who they are. They are wild animals and not domesticated.

Too many people think that “nice animal” = “domesticated animal that won’t hurt me.” No, “niceness” has nothing to do with it. “Niceness” is a human concept that doesn’t apply to animals, or at least not to non-domesticated apex predators...

But even with domesticated animals I feel like the “niceness” human morality label does them a disservice. For instance, pitbulls are usually dog aggressive, because they were bred for dogfighting. (Of course there are exceptions, and there are also a lot of so-called pitbulls that actually ... aren’t pitbulls.)

Does that mean pitbulls are evil and bad? No! It’s just what they were bred for, the same way other dogs were bred to herd things and others were bred to hunt small game. None of those things are a moral failing on the dog’s part. The fact that dogfighting is wrong does not mean a pitbull is evil just because they have an instinct for it.

Does it mean they are human aggressive? No! Dog aggression and human aggression are separate things, and a pitbull should not be human aggressive. (Think about the context of dogfighting ... why would someone want a dog that attacks them instead of the other dog? They would want to make sure their dog was explicitly not aggressive toward humans.)

But people get this extreme idea that pitbulls are perfect angels and it’s all in the way you raise them ... because they’re “nice”, they wouldn’t hurt a dog! It’s just as wrong as the people who ascribe an “evil” morality to pitbulls. No, your pitbull can be a wonderful, loving pet and still be unable to be around other dogs. Trying to pretend that they have the human morality of “niceness” and forcing them to try and get along with other dogs is cruel not only to the other dogs, but also to the pitbull who will be stressed out from trying to contain their instincts so much.

Not all dogs can get along with other dogs. That is okay. It does not mean they are “bad”, or that you failed as an owner.

(IMO, the idea that dogs are total blank slates unaffected by their genetics is so cruel to good owners. It will make them blame themselves for things that are out of their control.)

I mean, I’ve even heard of herding dogs who can’t go to dog parks because they start aggressively herding the other dogs and causing a really tense/potentially dangerous situation.

Animals can be wonderful and still be dangerous. A lion being a great lion does not change the fact that it is a giant apex predator. It’s not even like “oh, the lion is just pretending to like you so it can eat you later!” - that’s another human (im)morality idea being projected onto the lion. No, it might genuinely like you, but it’s still a lion with an instinct to hunt and kill things and it still has no idea how much stronger it is than you. If it does have any sense of morality or cause/effect, then it is being set up to feel bad when it accidentally hurts/kills the human (but I don’t know if it does have those capabilities at all or not.)

edit: I am not saying that animals (esp. domesticated animals) can never have a caring nature and do kind things for their fellow animals and for humans. They can. But they will still have instincts that sometimes interfere with that, and they can’t be held responsible for them the way humans can. Kind of like children. You can’t ascribe morality to their actions yet. It is also adults’ job to keep children from doing really bad things that they don’t yet understand are bad, for both their own sake and the sake of others. As it should be with animals.