Heartbroken

Before anything was booked for Thailand I knew I HAD to go to the Tiger Temple.  I had to go there.  I had to be there.  I had to have the chance to see Tigers in person and have the opportunity to get close to them.  

I'm a cat person.  I am probably already a crazy cat lady.  I love them when they are tiny, bity baby domestic kittens and I love them when they are powerful, massive wild cats.

I love them all!!  Tabby, calico, long-hair, short-hair, cheetah, leopard, lynx, lion and tigers,  especially tigers.  

So when I saw I would have the chance to "meet" (horrible word choice but I'm not bringing a better one to mind) them I was over the moon! (another horrible word choice.  ayy what is happening to me, my word choices are matching my experience - awful!)

And it was.  It was an awful experience.  The Tiger Temple was such a low, devastating experience, that had I not had so many highs during the beginning part of the trip I might have hated Thailand.  I realize that's a really strong word, but that is how much I wanted the Tiger Temple to be.... to be like Disney World! 

Why was it bad?  Where to start?!

First, they were anal about the dress code.  Yes, it is a temple, but that didn't stop me, or thousands of other tourist, from walking around the big temples in Bangkok wearing shorts and tank tops.  For this temple to flip its lip over an exposed shoulder, when you weren't even going into a freaking temple, only walking around the park grounds >.< was an issue I could not understand.  I climbed Wat Arun in a dress!  I sat in front of the endless Buddha's in shorts.  But yet you won't let me walk around your dirt canyon in nothing less than pants!?  Bat shit...

Second, their welcome was not welcoming, it was aggressive.  Back off lady I just got here and already I want to leave, you aren't doing much to help this place.  Take a lesson in Tourism Management!

Third, you were treated like a chained prisoner.  Once you got past the abrasive "greeter" we were put into lines based on money.  Right side if we wanted to pay to hold the tiger's head and get an extra photo-opt, left side if we just wanted to pass through on our own.  Expect it wasn't on our own.  Like I said we were chained prisoners.  One worker took your camera. Swipe - gone.  Another worker grabbed your wrist and did not let go.  Together they walked you through an assortment of sleeping tigers.  Where you were met by a third worker who told you where to go and how to sit by the sleeping tiger. 

Fourth, did I mention ALL the tigers were sleeping?! hmm... questionable.

Fifth, the man with your camera just started snapping away - click, click, click, click.... he took endless pictures.  Awesome!  But I look like an idiot in 98% of them!  Are you kidding me!  Those are the memories I can share with people and I look like garbage, the lighting is terrible, you've cut off my head on half of the photos, the placement is crap - and since you stole my camera - I wasn't able to check if it was on the right setting.. and guess what?!  It wasn't!!!!

Sixth, not only were all of the tigers sleeping, but they were chained to the ground.  Should they be awake or want to roll over, they only had ~2feet of metal chain mobility. 

Seventh, should they dare roll over, their permanent keeper would pull them back into a picture pose.  Should they only move their head a little, why the keeper's hat will be a great tool to adjust them - just give them a quick, sharp smack with it!

I could go on.  I could list for miles.  The heartbreak I felt over this experience was shattering!

 

I do fully understand that tigers are wild, potentially dangerous animals.  But I also understand that I willing went into an area where they were kept.  I choose to be the fool in this situation.  So should something happen, that is on me.  Not the tigers.  Do not keep them sedated so that I may have a closer interaction with them if it going to create a false and negative experience.  

I'm the type of person that believes what happens to animals is our fault.  The demise of their natural habitats, the decrease in their total population, their imprisonment in horrible enclosures (ie poorly maintained zoos, farms, temples) is a crime against them that we are doing out of dominance and ignorance.  

The man in Ohio who let his animals loose before killing himself, which lead to the state laying waste to all those helpless creatures was a crime.  Yes people could have been in danger, but we're in danger of never having these animals again.  Their numbers are being erased.  And to kill them and lock them up in horrible places is AWFUL.  

I got to spend a day with an elephant.  I feed her, I bathed her, she let me ride on her back and swim with her.  She could have gone wild at any moment.  She could have been spooked and charged at me, crushing me with only two of her feet.  Yet she didn't, because she was in an environment that was loving and set up so that she would thrive - that her kind would live and reproduce.  

That is what I wanted from the Tiger Temple.  I wanted a place that felt as if allowing visitors in was a privilege to the humans; not some right or money collecting business.

I wanted more.  And I didn't get it.