Wikijunior talk:Big Cats/In danger of extinction

Tigers are my favourite animal and I am highly against tiger poaching. It is a cruel and discusting thing to do to a living creature. How would you like it? G-d made humans to rule over the animals and to look after them. So why are we missusing our responsibility? Tigers are camouflaged, fast and excellent predators. The reason for the decline in the number of tigers is the greatest predator in the world: Man. If we keep killing tigers for our own selfish purposes then not one species of tiger will strive.Tigers like so many other animals in this world are so close to extinction. It was the human race that has brought them to where they are today, and it is only human beings who can help them.

Circuses and zoos..yet another attempt to master the great beast. To then lock him up and stare at him as a live trophy. To make him perform silly stunts and be humiliated so that people can laugh and be entertained. To watch him pace back and forth on a floor of concrete, and stare through iron bars. All so we can be amazed that such a creature is truly captured. How strong we must be to do this! How glorious of a species we must be to have taken away his freedom and to have humiliated the very defnition of grace and power. Therefore we see ourselves as beautiful and powerful, when all we really are is cowards and theives.

Soon, because we hold all the power, we begin to destroy even ourselves because there is nothing left and it is in the heart of every creature to gain the control. The glorious thing about nature is that it does not allow one to remain in that position forever, it allows one species to recede so that another can prosper and then the circle completes when the one who receded can now prosper again. And so it goes, the cycles that must be so. Humans have damaged it, ruined it, abused it and misunderstood it. So as you can see, I am highly against tiger poaching and the displaying of tigers in zoos and circuses. However, I am more concerned about the displaying of tigers in circuses than that in zoos, as zoos are there to save the few tigers that are left in the world. But if there were no poachers, there would be no need for zoos of any kind, and t[[Image:Example.jpg]herefore, I end my point: Tigers should be free to roam the world just as we are.

A Little Balance, Please
I am human, yet I have a deep and marvelous relationship of love, trust and mutual respect with the big cats I rescue. There is no such thing as collective guilt. I was born in a body that is superbly equipped to carry my life force where it wants to go, and has touch and sight and hearing good enough to love whom I will love, lion, tiger or human. It happens to be a human body, and for that I am unapologetic. That I do not have four legs or wings is neither a judgment against me nor a source of shame. Man's self exile from Nature comes from two sources: those who feel nature is a backdrop for man's grand exploits, and those who feel unworthy to touch the living wild. I choose not to exile myself from nature, and for this reason I am a much more effective champion of conservation than a hundred self-flagellants who bemoan their opposable thumbs. Forgive yourself and mankind, and go forth in love to stop the war against nature and heal the broken remnants of living Earth. Peace be with you.... John Burkitt 18:55, 23 November 2005 (UTC)