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CNN Live Sunday

Theme Park in Texas Lets Children Pet Tiger Cubs

Aired July 14, 2002 - 17:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: How close is too close when it comes to dangerous animals? A theme park in Texas is allowing children to hold and feed kittens -- tiger kittens. Brett Shipp with CNN affiliate WFAA in Dallas looks at the risks ticket holders take.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRETT SHIPP, WFAA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The exhibit is billed as "the tiger encounter," and appears to be a popular attraction this summer at Six Flags Over Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The ticket is only $15, and for an additional $5, you can keep the disk.

SHIPP: And for the right price, anyone can pet, hold, even feed tiger cubs. Marcus Cook of ZooCats Incorporated runs the exhibit.

MARCUS COOK, ZOOCATS: It's totally within the guidelines of the health and humane treatment and the animal care policy and procedures with United States Department of Agriculture.

SHIPP: But what Cook says is appropriate and USDA-approved is considered inhumane to another exotic cat handler, Louis Dorfman.

LOUIS DORFMAN, INTERNATIONAL EXOTIC FELINE SANCTUARY: The message that it sends to this generation and to the next generation is it's OK to control, to dominate, to use, to exploit animals like this, or beings of any sort, for our own amusement, without regard to their care.

SHIPP: Dorfman is an animal behaviorist at the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary. He watched our videotape of the Six Flags exhibit.

DORFMAN: See how she's holding this milk bottle? The baby is getting air. She's sucking in air. You've got to hold it up.

SHIPP: Not only, he says, is the cub being fed incorrectly, but Dorfman raises serious concerns about how close children are getting to the young, unpredictable tigers.

DORFMAN: Their teeth are like needles. I mean, you had four kids right around that cat. At anytime, he could have reached over and nipped one of them if they ever took that milk bottle out of his mouth.

KEN KAEMMERER, CURATOR OF MAMMALS, DALLAS ZOO: Their claws are incredibly sharp.

SHIPP: We showed the same video to Ken Kaemmerer, the curator of mammals at the Dallas Zoo. He too believes the Six Flags exhibit poses a public safety risk.

KAEMMERER: The very least they can scratch you, but when we're talking about a three, four-month old cub, they can give you a very serious bite and scratch. Especially when their arms, legs are exposed, they're not paying attention at all to the animal; they're looking at the camera.

SHIPP: Six Flags officials deferred all of our questions to the owner of the cats, who contends the exhibit is safe and humane.

(on camera): What's to keep a cat from reaching up and scratching someone holding, petting or feeding it?

COOK: Well, that would be the same principle as if you were holding a small little kitten, a domestic cat, because their structures and body weights are about the same, almost identical to these guys.

SHIPP (voice-over): Cook says the display helps promote tiger preservation, and the proceeds of the photo sessions are all dedicated toward species preservation. But Dorfman and Kaemmerer feel the exhibit could do more serious harm than good to ticket holders and to the tigers.

Brett Shipp, Channel 8 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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