This is an excellent documentary about a horrific subject. It's shocking and depressing to know there's so much ignorant white trash out there who think owning deadly predators and exotic animals is in any way okay. And that our local governments allow it, despite the death toll of both humans and animals, and the often terrible living conditions and fates of the animals involved.
The lion owner, Terry, who the documentary largely focuses on...I don't think I've ever actually hated a person featured in a documentary before, but that's what I felt towards him. Pure disgust and hatred. This man chose to deal with his depression by acquiring a male lion, named Lambert, and then a lioness later on. He kept these 500-pound animals in a tiny trailer not big enough for my dog for months and months. They eventually had four cubs (one died almost immediately) and were moved to a slightly larger cage.
I just don't see how those lions weren't taken away from him the first time one escaped and was attacking cars in traffic. The conditions these creatures were kept in were heartbreaking-- a pathetically small, filthy cage. Terry says so many times throughout the documentary how much he "loves" his lions, even while those lions are lying in mud and their own feces. The situation continues to deteriorate until Lambert dies a slow, excruciating death from an electrical accident. You get to watch the lion jump around his wet cage and roar in agony, with nowhere to escape, before his body finally gives out. So that four-year-old lion spent his entire short life confined in squalor before finally dying a painful death. But his owner "loved" him so much.
That's the reality for these animals. As is stated in the documentary, there are no happy endings for these animals. The moronic people who purchase and acquire them often have no idea what they're getting into and are poorly equipped to care for the animals, so most end up being put down, abandoned or dying in some other tragic way.
I don't understand this country I live in, where cities ban entire dog breeds yet allow people to own tigers in their home. It makes absolutely no sense. I hope documentaries like this wake people up and inspire real change.
The lion owner, Terry, who the documentary largely focuses on...I don't think I've ever actually hated a person featured in a documentary before, but that's what I felt towards him. Pure disgust and hatred. This man chose to deal with his depression by acquiring a male lion, named Lambert, and then a lioness later on. He kept these 500-pound animals in a tiny trailer not big enough for my dog for months and months. They eventually had four cubs (one died almost immediately) and were moved to a slightly larger cage.
I just don't see how those lions weren't taken away from him the first time one escaped and was attacking cars in traffic. The conditions these creatures were kept in were heartbreaking-- a pathetically small, filthy cage. Terry says so many times throughout the documentary how much he "loves" his lions, even while those lions are lying in mud and their own feces. The situation continues to deteriorate until Lambert dies a slow, excruciating death from an electrical accident. You get to watch the lion jump around his wet cage and roar in agony, with nowhere to escape, before his body finally gives out. So that four-year-old lion spent his entire short life confined in squalor before finally dying a painful death. But his owner "loved" him so much.
That's the reality for these animals. As is stated in the documentary, there are no happy endings for these animals. The moronic people who purchase and acquire them often have no idea what they're getting into and are poorly equipped to care for the animals, so most end up being put down, abandoned or dying in some other tragic way.
I don't understand this country I live in, where cities ban entire dog breeds yet allow people to own tigers in their home. It makes absolutely no sense. I hope documentaries like this wake people up and inspire real change.