A zoo visitor was left angered and disheartened after witnessing the "insane" treatment of a baby liger.
TikTok user Scott Bradley (@scott.brads1) shared a video from what they said was a Thai zoo using the young animal as a money-making tourist attraction.
@scott.brads1 Another zoo in Thailand… this time tourists were paying to step into a classroom to take photos with a baby liger 🦁🐯. This cub had no interaction with other animals—just handlers pulling it around by its tail to pose. And the liger…. These hybrid cats don't exist in the wild, they're bred purely for entertainment. 💔 #zoo #thailand #liger #animals #tourists ♬ original sound - Scott Bradley
The footage begins with the liger jumping at visitors gawking at it from behind the glass enclosure, purportedly at Sriayuthaya Lion Park.
Bradley explains that tourists who want a closer look can pay 300 Thai Baht (around $9.36) to go into the room to take a photo with it.
Disturbingly, the baby cub has to be coerced into this with force by the zoo employees. One of them is seen grabbing it by its legs to place it where they want, and brandishing a stick as a threat to obey their orders instead of running around and exploring like a cub might prefer.
Bradley notes other disturbing aspects of the scene. The liger cub is separated from its parents in a sparse indoor classroom with basically nothing but a Lion King mural.
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Bradley asserted in the caption that the hybrid liger "doesn't exist in the wild, they're bred purely for entertainment."
All of that solely to generate money for the zoo and cater to tourists. The video concludes in sad fashion, as it shows the liger cub left all alone in the empty room playing by itself.
Unfortunately, this mistreatment of big cats isn't foreign to anyone who dug into the "Tiger King" series. Still, seeing a zoo do it is frustrating. At their best, zoos aid in conservation and treat threatened animals with dignity and respect.
When other zoos choose profit and kowtowing to tourists, like another Thai zoo that dressed up orangutans in costumes, it raises important questions around the industry. Similarly, another zoo, this one in New Jersey, has been caught being negligent and failing to properly care for its animals.
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Set strict regulations 🚫 TikTok viewers were frustrated by the scene.
"This is so messed up," one wrote. "I hope people realize."
"Truly heartbreaking," another shared.
"There needs to be oversight," a commenter suggested. Bradley agreed wholeheartedly in a reply and said that "zoo after zoo after zoo" treats animals like this in Thailand.
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