The Sloth's Voice

Backyard Tiger

A young tiger cub
Born into the world
His name is Tony

Tony had a few brothers, sisters and his mom
They were a big happy family
But all of that changed when he was taken away

He was a photo prop
Life was terrible
He was woken up when he was required to be the photo prop
As a result, he suffered from lack of sleep
This was not good for a tiger cub
Tiger cubs require a lot of rest
Tony was also fed with a poor diet
He did not consume enough vitamins

When he got too big to be a prop,
He was then auctioned
He used to have his siblings around him
They're gone, like his Mom
Like Tony, they too, were being auctioned

Tony was bought by a family
'Perhaps I would a better life'
That was what Tony thought
Oh how wrong he was

Tony was kept in the backyard
There was not much space to move
In the wild, tigers roam thousands of miles
But here, Tony was kept in a small space
About the size of a parking space
The living conditions were bad
The tiny cage stank like rotten eggs and urine
The bars of the cage are rusting
And it was easy for Tony to escape
But since he was weak he did not
One reason was because he did not have enough food to eat
As a result, he was malnourished
Tony did not receive enough medical attention
So when he got cuts,
They got infected
When Tony made too much noise,
His owners would punish him
By hitting and poking him
Because he was weak,
Tony did not fight back

Years passed and Tony was still in the small space
He was injured, physically and mentally
He did not receive enough love
He did not receive enough medical attention
Tigers' fur is supposed to look pretty
But Tony's dirty

If you would like to stop this cruelty
There are many ways to help
Firstly, you can donate money to campaigns stopping the illegal tiger trade
Secondly, you can avoid taking pictures with tiger cubs
No matter how cuddly and cute they are,
Remember they're wild animals with instincts
When they sense they're in danger, they'll attack
Regardless how much affection you give them
You may have taken them out the wild,
But you are unable to take the wild out of them
Lastly, you can raise awareness

Please help these magnificent creatures
They don't deserve this treatment
For more information,
You can visit bigcatrescue.org
Or watch videos from Big Cat Rescue
They provide a lot of information about exotic animal abuse

( A/N: Just to let you amazing people know, this poem is fictional. But the abuse is real indeed! So if possible please help tigers and other exotic animals such as lions and wolves. Have a great day ahead! Goodbye! )