A Florida Panther in captivity. Under the guise of protection and public awarness, it is kept chained and in a cage and taken to county fairs and the like for exhibition. You can see a wound above it's eye from moving in it's cramped quarters. Surely man must find a better way to live with nature.

...and the thumb.

It was pretty evenly divided between the color camp and the b&w camp, so I went with my gut. I did darken it a bit though to make the mood more somber. The B&W was nice, but not what I felt worked best for this. --Kort

Kewl, man.... 'protection' and 'public awareness'? Insufficient excuse to keep it this way. Do they really need to see an animal in a cage to be aware that it wants to be running free? Why do they need to be aware of anything that takes away it's freedom?!? If it wasn't there it would be anywahere near them for them to need to be aware of it. Leave that to the discovery channel. (",)

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.............what a bunch of bastards!!! I wish I could put them into a cage! Oh delight!!!

makes me cry. Seeing it bigger like this and darker, makes this all the more sad, Kort. sigh

Yep...another big issue .

added

ooh...this pains me. We once went to a "wild animal park" and saw a fox doing the back and forth thing in a small cage. Sad. I posted one entry and mentioned www.tigerhaven.org At least at that place, the people understand how inappropriate this is. Thanks for the moving image. Those cats in FLA are endangered as it is...no more seen around here of the regular cougars..they have lost all the territory needed for survival. Tom.

How sad! There is not much that makes me more upset than the mistreatment of children, animals, and elderly. I can barely stand to even look at this photo. Will we as a people ever grow up>

Thank you Kort, thank u so much, thanks a 1000 times!!!!... (I feel less lonely, now!)

Dear TwoPynts, Kort, I respond a second time to this image. The reality behind it..that is what saddens me as in ReBorneUK's excellent depiction of child abuse. In your image, however, my gut feels empathy as this beautiful animal is today, tomorrow, the next day somewhere else on exhibit. So sad. Blessings and Peace. With a wish for humanity to lose some of its arrogance toward the creation. Tom.

yEP tOM!! I'm always with u on this a 100%!!

Pascale, U have a heart. That's good, never doubted it. I am with U on this, too.

Hehe!! Sam LOVES u! ;)