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Image 1 out of 4

Series Images:

Control: it's something that as humans, we like to do. We try to control our futures outcome, our children in the grocery store and even how another person behaves but there is one thing we as humans do not enjoy: someone controlling us. It's a vicious cycle of wanting control but not wanting to be controlled. We take this into nature, controlling the landscape and even wildlife so it's safer and more convenient for ourselves. But what if nature doesn't want to be controlled? What then? Wildlife and big cats have been a target for humans to control either for profit, as a pet or for entertainment. When a wild cat gets out of our control, it can be disastrous and result in death for either the human and/or animal. It's upsetting when an animal acts on its instinct and is killed because of their inability to act domestically.
There are still fur farms in America where Bobcats and Lynxes are being bread and raised only to be slaughtered for their fur. Tigers in America are on the black market where their bodies are worth more dead than alive. White tigers come from inbreeding and yet most people who pay to see a white tiger have no idea of the health issues that lay underneath their fur- they just look pretty. It's the same concept we do to ourselves: we will do anything unhealthy, like starve ourselves, just to fit into a pair of jeans. Unlike humans, animals do not connect through the same senses as we do. Once we smell, touch, watch or listen to someone, it's personal and can create a connection between two people. But it is not the same with animals. Most people think a domesticated cat is showing affection when it rubs it head on a person’s leg, but in reality the cat contains glands on the side of their mouth that they are using to mark their territory.
I myself am still researching and pondering the fine line that exists between preserving and educating ourselves about animal species versus controlling them. Being in an enclosure is not always the healthiest environment, nor are the animals truly free but programs in zoo's help people learn more about animals and how we can take part in conservation.

About Shere Khan
Male Bengal/Siberian Tiger

DOB 12/20/94

If you saw The Tiger Next Door on Animal Planet, then you saw the horrid conditions at the facility owned by Dennis Hill in Flatrock, Indiana. The Tiger Next Door didn't air until 3/25/2010 and it was about USDA taking away Hill's permit and the DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) seizing all but three tigers in 2005. What the show doesn't bring out is that the conditions you saw in the movie were far better than when DNR first inspected, although there were a few glimpses of tigers in mud up to their bellies, and it doesn't show that the awful, pre 2005 conditions were the status quo as far back as 1995 when I was there.

The tigers in the documentary, The Tiger Next Door, that ended up at Joe Taft's place in Indiana, named Tony and Patty where Shere Khan's parents. When I visited in 1995 he had rows upon rows of dog run styled cages, a foot or more deep in rotting feces and mud, filthy water pans, flimsy cages, some had only a rope or belt to hold a door shut, no roofs on many of the cages and then there was the barn. You didn't see much of it in the film, but it was dark, filthy and crammed as full of leopards, tigers, cougars and other exotic cats as could be fitted in tiny, barren cages.

The version on Animal Planet also didn't show much of Dennis Hill's house and the obvious signs of hoarding. It was so nasty I didn't want to touch anything in the house. My skin crawled from fleas and mites. I couldn't wait to get out of the house and back to our plane, but that is when I saw Shere Khan.

Shere Khan stole our hearts when we saw him on 3/12/95. Though he was bred to be a White Tiger, he was born “the wrong color.” His birth was a result of the incessant demand for White Tigers by a public that is fascinated by oddities. Though many people believe that the White Tiger is an “endangered” species that should be bred to be saved, this is a total lie. The White Tiger results from a color mutation that happens infrequently in the wild and usually is not passed along. White animals in a forest environment would not live long due to their inability to hide and sneak up on prey. When you hear the phrase “survival of the fittest,” remember that nature does not allow the genetically mutated White Tiger to survive in the wild nor should we in captivity.

Shere Khan did not have much of a chance for survival from the start. Dennis Hill had pre-sold him as a white cub, but the purchaser kept putting off his delivery date. He finally cancelled the sale when Shere Khan was already four months old. The breeders were left with a quickly growing cub on their hands and no other facilities for him other than a small carrier. He was up to his belly in feces and decaying food in a pet taxi that seemed to just bust at the seams with tiger fur.

He never got the vitamins and exercise he needed as a growing cub, so his back legs were badly underdeveloped. He was very sick for a long time and suffered major problems from calcium deficiency. X-rays showed that his baby canine teeth were rotting in their sockets from his malnourishment and they had to be excised because they had rotted through his face. His bones were mere paper shells and one wrong jump could easily break a leg. We supplemented him three times a day with calcium to encourage healthy bones and teeth.

Prior permission from Jeff Kremer (the Director of Donor Appreciation at Big Cat Rescue) to use Shere Khan in my senior show and information.
Link to Original text: [link]
Reference Image used by *Falln-Stock [link] and she states:

"My stock is free to use for all deviantArt members, only if -all- my listed rules are followed.
You are welcome to use it outside of DA for noncommercial purposes, only if -all- my listed rules are followed.
You are welcome to post your art made with my stock on other art galleries, your own personal gallery or otherwise, only if -all- my listed rules are followed.
You are welcome to post art made with my stock in DA contests."

All other content is copyright under my name "Amanda McNeil" and my studio name "Amandas Sketches".

All done in "Photoshop CS5"

Special thank you to the following for their critique and support:

You can support and/or donate to Big Cat Rescue by sponsoring a cat! [link]

Description
Image 1 out of 4

Series Images:

Control: it's something that as humans, we like to do. We try to control our futures outcome, our children in the grocery store and even how another person behaves but there is one thing we as humans do not enjoy: someone controlling us. It's a vicious cycle of wanting control but not wanting to be controlled. We take this into nature, controlling the landscape and even wildlife so it's safer and more convenient for ourselves. But what if nature doesn't want to be controlled? What then? Wildlife and big cats have been a target for humans to control either for profit, as a pet or for entertainment. When a wild cat gets out of our control, it can be disastrous and result in death for either the human and/or animal. It's upsetting when an animal acts on its instinct and is killed because of their inability to act domestically.
There are still fur farms in America where Bobcats and Lynxes are being bread and raised only to be slaughtered for their fur. Tigers in America are on the black market where their bodies are worth more dead than alive. White tigers come from inbreeding and yet most people who pay to see a white tiger have no idea of the health issues that lay underneath their fur- they just look pretty. It's the same concept we do to ourselves: we will do anything unhealthy, like starve ourselves, just to fit into a pair of jeans. Unlike humans, animals do not connect through the same senses as we do. Once we smell, touch, watch or listen to someone, it's personal and can create a connection between two people. But it is not the same with animals. Most people think a domesticated cat is showing affection when it rubs it head on a person’s leg, but in reality the cat contains glands on the side of their mouth that they are using to mark their territory.
I myself am still researching and pondering the fine line that exists between preserving and educating ourselves about animal species versus controlling them. Being in an enclosure is not always the healthiest environment, nor are the animals truly free but programs in zoo's help people learn more about animals and how we can take part in conservation.

About Shere Khan
Male Bengal/Siberian Tiger

DOB 12/20/94

If you saw The Tiger Next Door on Animal Planet, then you saw the horrid conditions at the facility owned by Dennis Hill in Flatrock, Indiana. The Tiger Next Door didn't air until 3/25/2010 and it was about USDA taking away Hill's permit and the DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) seizing all but three tigers in 2005. What the show doesn't bring out is that the conditions you saw in the movie were far better than when DNR first inspected, although there were a few glimpses of tigers in mud up to their bellies, and it doesn't show that the awful, pre 2005 conditions were the status quo as far back as 1995 when I was there.

The tigers in the documentary, The Tiger Next Door, that ended up at Joe Taft's place in Indiana, named Tony and Patty where Shere Khan's parents. When I visited in 1995 he had rows upon rows of dog run styled cages, a foot or more deep in rotting feces and mud, filthy water pans, flimsy cages, some had only a rope or belt to hold a door shut, no roofs on many of the cages and then there was the barn. You didn't see much of it in the film, but it was dark, filthy and crammed as full of leopards, tigers, cougars and other exotic cats as could be fitted in tiny, barren cages.

The version on Animal Planet also didn't show much of Dennis Hill's house and the obvious signs of hoarding. It was so nasty I didn't want to touch anything in the house. My skin crawled from fleas and mites. I couldn't wait to get out of the house and back to our plane, but that is when I saw Shere Khan.

Shere Khan stole our hearts when we saw him on 3/12/95. Though he was bred to be a White Tiger, he was born “the wrong color.” His birth was a result of the incessant demand for White Tigers by a public that is fascinated by oddities. Though many people believe that the White Tiger is an “endangered” species that should be bred to be saved, this is a total lie. The White Tiger results from a color mutation that happens infrequently in the wild and usually is not passed along. White animals in a forest environment would not live long due to their inability to hide and sneak up on prey. When you hear the phrase “survival of the fittest,” remember that nature does not allow the genetically mutated White Tiger to survive in the wild nor should we in captivity.

Shere Khan did not have much of a chance for survival from the start. Dennis Hill had pre-sold him as a white cub, but the purchaser kept putting off his delivery date. He finally cancelled the sale when Shere Khan was already four months old. The breeders were left with a quickly growing cub on their hands and no other facilities for him other than a small carrier. He was up to his belly in feces and decaying food in a pet taxi that seemed to just bust at the seams with tiger fur.

He never got the vitamins and exercise he needed as a growing cub, so his back legs were badly underdeveloped. He was very sick for a long time and suffered major problems from calcium deficiency. X-rays showed that his baby canine teeth were rotting in their sockets from his malnourishment and they had to be excised because they had rotted through his face. His bones were mere paper shells and one wrong jump could easily break a leg. We supplemented him three times a day with calcium to encourage healthy bones and teeth.

Prior permission from Jeff Kremer (the Director of Donor Appreciation at Big Cat Rescue) to use Shere Khan in my senior show and information.
Link to Original text: [link]
Reference Image used by *Falln-Stock [link] and she states:

"My stock is free to use for all deviantArt members, only if -all- my listed rules are followed.
You are welcome to use it outside of DA for noncommercial purposes, only if -all- my listed rules are followed.
You are welcome to post your art made with my stock on other art galleries, your own personal gallery or otherwise, only if -all- my listed rules are followed.
You are welcome to post art made with my stock in DA contests."

All other content is copyright under my name "Amanda McNeil" and my studio name "Amandas Sketches".

All done in "Photoshop CS5"

Special thank you to the following for their critique and support:

You can support and/or donate to Big Cat Rescue by sponsoring a cat! [link]