Take care with tigers

Published: 2nd June, 2011

• REGARDING your excellent story (Tigers, spiders and cuddly crocs banned, May 26), the World Society for the Protection of Animals was shocked to hear this was being pitched as an event for animal lovers in Camden.

Many people want to get up close to wild animals and being able to handle a tiger cub may seem like a great opportunity. 

So it would really upset those same people to know this beautiful animal is likely to suffer stress and discomfort with being transported around in a cage, handled by hundreds of different people, and having to endure camera flashes and noise and changes of environment.  

At a time when there is clear public demand to end the use of performing animals in circuses, this sort of entertainment seems a huge step backwards. 

Events like Ekram Alam’s Animal Fayre have no place in Camden, and no place in Britain.
Simon Pope
World Society for the Protection of Animals