Letters to the Editor

PETA SPEAKS OUT

Thank you for focusing some attention on the campaign to get Tony the tiger retired from the Tiger Truck Stop (“Cat Fight ,” Feb. 4). Please allow me to clarify one point: PETA, nor anyone speaking on our behalf, ever suggested that Tony be let out of his cage or killed to end his misery. What we would like, as do compassionate people all over, is for Tony to be relinquished to a sanctuary so he can live out his days in comfort and peace.

In the wild, tigers roam over vast distances. They make dens in areas with dense vegetative cover and love to swim. Tigers shun human contact. Being kept in a cramped, barren cage in the middle of a truck stop parking lot is cruel.

This is 2009. The time is long overdue to show we have learned something in the many years since Montezuma first caged hunchback and albino human beings, jaguars and monkeys. Using animals as roadside props must come to an end.