A few years ago a friend of my son was dying in hospital from liver cancer.He had 2 full grown Bengal tigers that he kept in a 50' long run behind his house. He had a couple of freezers stocked with frozen chickens that he would feed them daily.While he was in the hospital his girlfriend along with the new boyfriend was cleaning out his house of anything of value + could not be bothered to feed the cats. My sons friend told him he could have the cats,cages + all. I told him no fxxxing way,we don't need them up here + besides there are now 2 hungry tigers that have not been fed in days.You need to call Parks+ Wildlife or one of the exotics sellers. All we need is for them to get loose here in the hill country.I never knew how it played out. I hope they did'nt have to put them down.

Back to the original article, I take everything in that article with a grain of salt. The state of wild tigers and leopards in India is a sad situation. Squatters are expanding into national forests and other areas that were supposedly reserved for wild game, then when someone gets hurt or killed gunner are brought in to shoot the culprit or any other tiger or leopard that gets in the way. Occasionally the animal is trapped.

When I left India eight years ago there was a big raucous about Project Tiger. The conservation authorities in two tiger reserves were working with the poachers to benefit financially from tiger killing. They had eliminated tigers totally from these two reserves. The corrupt officials would find "tiger" pug marks for their supervisors to look at periodically. The pug marks were man-made using carved wooden stumps.

Leopard and tiger numbers were always grossly exaggerated to make everyone get a warm, fuzzy feeling.

They are such magnificent, beautiful animals it would be a terrible event if they became extinct.