Gotta say, I am a little concerned about the practices of the Ashville Game Farm regarding their tigers. Between the tiger getting loose a while back, the poor child at the fair, and my experience there last summer with my family. It's all too much!
Last summer my husband and I took our four year old and our baby for an afternoon at the Ashville Game Farm. As we were walking around looking at each animal cage, I heard a voice say "they're bringing out a tiger". I turned around and there in front of me, just feet away was a white tiger being walked through the farm with a leash. The two men walking it started fiercely waving their hands at me to move back. I was SHOCKED!! I held my son's hand so tight I nearly broke it. I picked him up and slowly moved backward never taking my eyes off the tiger, thinking what are we going to do if this tiger breaks free. Just as the tiger past in front of one of the animal cages (I believe it was the bear cage) it stopped and started to lift it's paws off the ground.....obviuosly agitated. At that point I told my husband to grab the baby out of the stroller and we ran to higher ground. The only place I could find to go was behind a chain link gate (not like that would stop a tiger). The rest of the crowd followed us. Meanwhile, the staff tried to reassure the guests that the tiger was just getting spooked and everything was okay and under control. In my opinion, things looked like they could have gone very bad, very quick. The staff definatley looked like they had their hands full trying to calm the tiger down as he moved about. I looked to see if any staff were armed with tranquilizer guns, but I didn't see any. Someone had mentioned they were transporting this tiger to a parade. At this point our visit was OVER! We packed up and left immediately. I was so upset and angry that they would bring a animal like that through a crowd of people where young children are wandering about. There was no official announcement (that I heard of), only a warning I happen to hear from another visitor. My husband later told me that that was the second tiger they brought through that day. Shouldn't there be some sort of precautions taken? Perhaps a back exit to the parking lot to load them into the trailer??
I was hesitant to write anything in this forum because I hate to bring any more bad publicity to the Ashville Farm, putting anyone's livelyhood at stake. But, the most recent incident at the fair was enough for me. I don't know where the fault lies at that scene. All I know is today's headline could have been much worse! It upsets me so.
