[FEL-L] ABC's 20/20 to cover privately held wild animals --10/27/06

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

On Friday, October 27, ABC's 20/20, which airs at 10pm ET/PT, will include a 
segment titled "Lions and Tigers and Bears in the Backyard."

You can read a lot of the transcript and see a three minute version of the 
story 
on line at  http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2604901

Michelle Thew of the Animal Protection Institute is interviewed. 

In the three minute video on the website we see Dave Salmoni of Animal Planet 
mauled while "doing a live show at a Toronto zoo with a mild mannered lion 
named 
Bongo." What we see is Salmoni taunting that wild animal with a stick and we 
see 
Bongo attack when he has had enough.

Salmoni says, "You believe they love you like you love them." He continues, 
"They don't have the same feelings that we do and they won't think twice if 
they 
come to kill you."

Really? They don't have the same feelings we do?  I wonder how Salmoni would 
feel and what he would do if some little guy half his size was bossing him 
around with a stick.  Perhaps they have feelings much like we do, but they 
don't 
have the same feelings for us, their jailers, as we have for them, our 
beautiful 
captives.

The show covers the tragic death of teenager Haley Hilderbrand who was killed 
on 
a visit to a tiger "sanctuary."  The tiger was also killed. 

The webpage transcript says, "In the course of our investigation, 20/20 found 
many cases where the public was put in harm's way and animals were 
mistreated." 
The webpage and three minute version of the story do not give the impression 
that animal mistreatment is a focus.  (It might be on the longer version that 
will air Friday night.) The focus on danger to humans, however, is useful 
since 
if the story scares people away from frequenting these scam "sanctuaries" 
they 
will go out of business, which will discourage the breeding of wild animals 
to 
be put on display in cages
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