Episode 2 has just aired, and our thoughts are very much the same. In this episode, the cubs were slightly older, meaning that they were doing a lot of damage to the house they are living in, such as chewing up sofas. Despite the fact that this can't be good for them, and the obvious choking/digestion risks it provides, the family seemed unbothered about stopping such behaviours, which only served further to highlight how inappropriate it is to raise wild animals in a house.
On the other side of the spectrum, fair play to the BBC for showing the real extent of poaching, the real nitty gritty, rather than pussy-footing round the issue. Part of the programme was filmed in Indonesia, and showed the skins and body parts of tiger which had been poached - including a foot which was hanging onto the rest of the skin by a thread thanks to the damage done by a snare.
Whilst we embrace any television programme, or zoo, which helps to raise awareness of the plight of critically endangered animals such as the Sumatran tiger, we still have strong reservations that hand-rearing cubs is the way to go about raising awareness, or even that it makes any contribution to the long term welfare and conservation of these animals.
We'll be tuning in to the final installment tomorrow to see if our views change.
EDIT: Since the second episode aired earlier this evening, it has been revealed that during filming, one of the tiger keepers at Australia Zoo, where the programme takes place, was left in intensive care after being mauled by one of the adult tigers. This does nothing to impove the programme's reputation, which was already taking a beating from the public on social media, and only serves to fuel the argument that tigers should not be socialised.
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