i don’t much like reblogging purely negative news on this blog but like, man, i really hate seeing cute pics of animals that are actually a total horrorshow if you know what’s going on, and because i love animal pictures i end up seeing a couple bad pics every day, and it’s a real bummer.
like i’m always seeing tigers from tiger farms or abusive resorts on my dashboard— most of the cutest pics of tigers are from shitty, unnatural situations with tigers slated for shitty, exploitative deaths. is it a picture of a tiger with a buddhist monk? yeah, those shitheads run an abusive tourist resort. is it a whole bunch of tigers in the same enclosure? that’s a real bad sign. is the tiger hanging out with any other species for any reason whatsoever? that’s also bad. is the tiger really fat? healthy siberian tigers don’t put on so much winter weight they look like garfield. white tigers and white lions are incredibly fucking bad for conservation efforts: every single one is an inbred, maladaptive mess that can’t survive in the wild, should never be bred back to viable members of their already-endangered species, and has been created and maintained purely for publicity, prestige, and money.
and all those pics of rainforest frogs in cute poses: those frogs are captured and then cold-stunned or killed and then arranged with fishing wire. a photographer is not going to get a ‘natural’ photo of a frog riding on a beetle like a cowboy. someone might have gotten a natural photo of frogs in a cute little pyramid stack, like, once. the others are stacking the frogs themselves.
is there an interspecies friendship photoset between a big wild apex predator and something little and cute? unless it’s a cheetah and an emotional support dog— or the grouping involves a capybara, one of nature’s chillest bros— it’s very likely to be from a shitty unregulated stunt zoo that does shit like put piglets in with tigers or give weiner dogs to lions or teaches monkeys to ride horses or whatever.
kittens photographed playing with and grooming chicks and ducks? cats have a whole lot of nasty bacteria in their mouths and can make young birds (and rabbits and rodents) pretty sick. rabbits playing with dogs? probably not having all that much fun: they will leap up and box to try and scare a predator off if they realize that running’s not their best option. rabbits do chase each other around and bink (jump up in the air) happily, but it’s just a really irresponsible and dangerous thing for people to allow their dog to get involved with. almost everyone is way worse at reading animal stress and fear than we think we are.
video of ostrich doing a funny dance at or with a human? it’s probably captive, farmed ostrich. that’s a sexual display, and ostriches form sexual attractions to humans only when raised around them. i mean it’s pretty funny. it just doesn’t indicate a good situation for that bird.
and all those funny pics of a dog smiling in a goofy or weird situation? if the dog’s mouth is closed and the lips are pulled back tightly, that’s a placating grimace, the dog is trying to get its people to stop freaking it out. a real smile on a dog almost always involves a loose, open mouth and casual or forward ear placement. dogs are as varied as people and some do have idiosyncratic expressions, but generally squinting, tight grimaces, pulled back ears, and hunching with paws together are all ‘pls pls make it stop’ indicators, not ‘we’re having so much fun!’.
and any instance of pet birds or rodents being allowed out of their cages around cats and dogs? no. please no. do not do this, do not endorse this, do not be charmed by pictures of this. it’s a demonstration of human ego, to show their control over an incredibly dangerous situation for a fragile and vulnerable bird, or human denial, that our domestic predator friends will never follow their instinct and take a snap at something that looks and smells and moves like a toy. even big parrots have delicate bones, and their immune systems just aren’t set up to handle the bacteria load of a cat scratch or nip. ditto rats and hamsters.
silver lining tho: almost all pics of humans hanging out with rescue sloths are legit. do not worry about those.
yes, to reiterate, capybara pals are one of the (few imho) cute animal buddy stories that aren’t secretly horrifying. capybaras are very large, chill, semiaquatic herbivores with few predators, and they like to live in family groupings. they seem to view smaller animals as harmless kiddos. so, in zoos and rescues they can be paired with other species and live harmoniously, with no apparent stress. in several instances they have been paired in enclosures with small primates (monkeys and gibbons) and the paired species have seemed to adopt each other into a mixed family group, with the primate species attentively grooming their gentle capybara friend-mounts. there is a high likelihood that any photo of a capybara with monkeys all over it is healthy for everyone involved, so you can enjoy those with no guilt whatsoever.
just moving along like everyone else 