A beautiful white tiger attracts many onlookers, and is the star performer in many animal shows, zoos and magical performances. But most people don’t know where these animals come from. In the wild, a white tiger is very rare because it is born from the effect of a gene abnormality called Leucism. The abnormality is caused by a recessive gene that expresses itself only when the gene is passed on by both the father and the mother, much like blue eyes in humans. It is rare for both parents to have that particular gene, and even then it is rather unlikely for that gene to be passed down by both parents, as opposed to the dominant orange-coloration gene that would express itself should it come from either parent. The only way to have remote chance of producing a white tiger would be to have two orange tigers who happened to have the rare white gene mate.
So most zoos and circuses choose the easy way out: incest. Every white tiger you will ever see is likely a by-product of inbreeding. The white coat is not the only “gift” passed onto the animal; many other mutations occur. In fact, it is the same gene that causes the tiger to produce a white coat which also causes the optic nerve to be wired to the wrong side of its brain. All white tigers created in this manner are cross-eyed, even if their eyes appear to be perfectly normal. They also often suffer from club feet, cleft palates, spinal deformities and defective organs.
As mentioned before, the gene is recessive, and so in order to first produce a white tiger from a white tiger and an orange one, inbreeding means that most of the cubs have normal coats but are also similarly deformed. In the trade these tigers are referred to as “throw away tigers”, and are killed just after birth.
Because none of these cats are purebred (they are all crosses between Bengal tigers and Siberian tigers, two completely different tiger species), they serve no conservation purpose because these white tigers cannot breed with each other and indeed are so weak that they could never survive in the wild even if they could. The white gene can only be passed on from some other unlucky orange tiger who has the gene.
Only 1 in 4 tiger cubs from a white tiger bred to an orange tiger carrying the white gene are born white, and 80% of those die from birth defects associated with the inbreeding necessary to cause a white coat. Only 1 in 30 of those white cats will survive to adulthood. The number of tigers that have to be produced and disposed of in order to fill the public’s desire to see white tigers on display is staggering.
The myth of the Rare White Bengal Tiger was an illusion meant to deceive the public into thinking that these cats were endangered and being preserved for future generations, when in reality the rare wild variant is simply a mutant that would not survive in the wild, and the captive variant is most likely an abomination created for profit. The exotic animal market is a multimillion dollar industry, ranking just below the illegal drug trade and just above the illegal gun market. Zoos should not be able to claim that they had no idea how these tigers were obtained, they should not be allowed to create these abominations…and they should not claim a mystical tale, a crusade to save an endangered species, when they are in fact committing one of the harshest crimes known to nature for their personal profit. Disgusting.
Original source: http://bigcatrescue.org/abuse-issues/issues/white-tigers/
Not so beautiful any more…
contact me.
They are still beautiful and interesting examples of nature’s imperfections. Very sad that they intentionally create living beings who mostly suffer and die just to produce a valuable “item” for profit. Disgusting.
I learned something new today. Seriously, I never knew the white tigers were the result of a mutated gene (and inbreeding). An idiot that I had for a teacher in elementary school said that white tigers are Siberian tigers and the orange ones are Bengal tigers. I always thought of it that way, unfortunately