The Dark Story Behind The Beauty of White Tigers
Many of us have seen a white tiger at least once in our lives. If not in port, at least in photos. White tigers are one one of the most beautiful animals animals on earth. Because of its attractiveness, almost of every zoo in the world has a white tiger. But many people don’t know about the suffering of these white tigers, and how the humans have a crossed limits of cruelty on animals. This article will open your eyes to the harsh truth behind the “joy” that these white tigers give to humans with its beauty.
The reason for the white color of white tigers is due to the missing red and yellow pigments which generally are responsible for their orange skin tone. But due to some biological reason their brown and black pigment is not affected which is why they retain stripes. White tiger cubs are generally born out of two orange tigers when they have a recessive gene. The odds of it happening are very low, thus naturally bred white tigers are very very rare. But when two white tigers mate, the odds of white tiger cub birth is very high. This is the reason that triggered massive uncontrolled inbreeding of white tigers to supply the demands of zoos across the world.
Back in 1951, a white tiger was born to a orange tiger in India. He was named Mohan. Mohan’s entire family was killed to capture him. After several years, he was forced to bred with his one of own orange daughter for a probable white offspring. The white tiger born out this inbreeding was then used in US to breed a large volume of white tigers. Because of their rarity they generated thousands of dollars of profits for the breeders which led to uncontrolled breeding across the globe. But this was not the end. Along with the inbreeding method, cross-breeding was also employed between Bengal and Siberian white tigers which proved that it increases the odds of white tiger birth. These tigers are called generic tigers and are of zero conservation value.
Now, if we consider the reckless inbreeding as one part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the actual health issues faced by these white tigers both in the wild and in captivity. Generally, white tigers have trouble surviving due to lack camouflage with their white skin which significantly reduce the success rate of hunt carried out by them. Along with this, they will have several birth defects like cross eye which reduces focus on an object (in other words they won’t able to target preys), cleft palate (lip split), scoliosis (sideways curvature of spine), weak immunity, mental impairments, defective organs, club foot, etc. About 80% of these inbred (both white and orange ) tigers die early due to severe health issues, only 1% of those remaining 20% will live a bit longer and will be used for zoos and the remaining will be killed. Surprisingly, even mother rejects these type of cubs, often mother kills its own cubs just after birth in case if the cub is unhealthy and look incapable of surviving. Their list of problems and greediness of humans have no end.
Here is a picture of a white tiger in a US zoo suffering from cleft palate.
This is the timeline of events of white tiger inbreeding:
1951 — A white tiger cub was spotted in India. The cub’s mother and its three siblings were shot and killed. The white tiger cub was captured and was named Mohan by Maharaja Gulab Singh of Rewa.
1952 to 1956 — Mohan was mated with Begum, an orange colored tigress captured in the same area. She produced only orange colored litters for 4 years.
1957 — Mohan was forced to mate with Radha, an orange tiger and his 4 year old daughter.
1958 — Radha produced a all-white litter consisting of a male and three female cubs. They were named Raja, Rani, Sukeshi and Mohini respectively. Raja and Rani were given to National Zoological Gardens in New Delhi. Mohini was sent to Washington D.C and Sukeshi was kept for mating with Mohan. This forced mating did not result in any white litter. So, the breeders took out Mohan. But they used Radha and Mohan’s son to mate with his own mother. But he didn’t show any interest.
1964 — Raja and Rani were mated to produce a male and a female cub. But Rani tried to kill both of them. The female cub died, and the male cub “Tippu” survived but lost his tail. He was hand raised with difficulty by the breeders.
1965- Rani produced two litters. In the first litter, two white cubs died to due to neglect from both the mother and the breeders. In the second litter, the three white cubs were left with their mother Rani for care. But due to their severe illnesses, she lost interest in them and the breeders had to hand raise them. But two of them died on the way to USA. But breeding of white tigers from Rani didn’t stop. She gave birth to a total of 20 tigers in her life span.
1969 — The last known White Bengal Tiger, Mohan died at 20 years of age.
I hope by this point, you would have realized how much these animals are tortured by zoos to make money. So, please never ever pay to see a white tiger or any rare animal for that matter, most of them are inbred including white lion. Your money is the prize to the breeders for abusing these animals. That’s the last thing you can do to protect these animals. One thing everyone has to remember always is, “whether it’s a bird, animal or a poisonous snake, all have come to this earth just like us to live a long and happy life, no one has a right to take that beautiful life away, treat them with kindness. We need them more than they need us”
References:
All White Tigers Are Inbred and are Not Purebred
The Genetic Basis of White Tigers
“A simple act of kindness and compassion towards a single animal may not mean anything to all creatures, but will mean everything to one.”
– Paul Oxton
