Click on this link to find out how (if, of course, you are crazy and irresponsible) World's Most Dangerous and Controversial Zoo
I want to go there, and learn the training techniques they use to to get such well conditioned animals!
The lion must be drugged like those Thai Tigers in that munk temple; there's no other way that a full-grown male lion would allow a total strange to do this, no matter how badly it is treated behind the scenes in between.
Without condoning these "dangerous" and "irresponsible" practices at all, I would have to say that it is also dangerous to assume that the lion is "drugged" or "badly ... treated behind the scenes in between". It is not unusual to have a mature male lion that will let you to sit on it. That is, if you have a bond with it. No drugs needed and treating it "badly" behind the scenes will not produce the outcome that you see here. However, to allow strangers to do so is irresponsible in the extreme. Mind you, this activity is not a million miles away from some of the big cat/human interactions that you can buy at some highly respectable institutions right here in Australia.
That photo has been on ZooChat before, and the situation the "lion-riding girl" finds herself in is quite ridiculous. I also like the cement & bars in the enclosure, as at least the big cat has a naturalistic exhibit.
I'm from Argentina and that's the worst zoo here. It's called "Lujan Zoo", visitors can ride elephants and dromedary camels, also they can touch tigers, lions, bears, coatis, cheetahs and mountain lions. Because of that article, they do not allow riding big cats anymore. Even though the Argentine law prohibits the public's contact with wild animals, that zoo does not care. However, they tell the press that that are no longer doing it, but they do; it's disgusting! Moreover, animals live in small and horrible cages, and there is one cage with a lion and some tigers so as to "produce" a liger.
