Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
The animal cruelty allegations continue to fly as the Daily News has another update of "The Baby Lion the NY Post Abandoned." The Daily News reports that while the lion cub is doing better (though "Boomerang was heavily medicated and wrapped in blankets yesterday to simulate its mother's warmth."), various experts are angry at the Post (naturally) and Post reporter Al Guart for foolishly trying to purchase a lion cub online for an expose on animal cruelty.
- "It is the equivalent of setting up a meeting with an 11-year-old girl at the mall to show how easy it is to pick up children." - ASPCA's Stephen Zawistowski, an animal behavior expert.
- Jim Doherty, general curator at the Bronx Zoo - Guart and the Post were "playing right into the hands of the breeder."
The News also directs readers to "Save Boomerang" donation information, but we're surprised that the DN hasn't taken the opportunity to give the $10,000 to Noah's Lost Ark, in a grand gesture of "We're not cruel to animals the way the Post is."
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
More like , "Baby Lion Media Boom" on Gothamist. Not that there's anything wrong with that. One can be just as infatuated with cute baby lions as with cute baby pandas, as long as they aren't in the same room together.
Yes, that one picture of Boomerang is super adorable. He is also the combination of a few favorite Gothamist things: Baby animals, NY newspapers, and various beefs (figurative).
I really doesn't sound like the Post thought this one through beyond getting a few extra news stand sales from the cute baby lion photo that I'm sure they would have smacked on the cover.
Check out this letter to the NY Post from the American Sanctuary Association (ASA), which casts a MUCH different light on the cub story than does the NY Daily News stories.
ASA is the organization that worked with the reporter prior to the action taken, and they state the story has "become completely distorted by other media and individuals with their own private agenda".
Specifically, they say:
"If the cub is sick, it is because of the way he was kept by the breeder. The reporter had the animal far too little time to make him sick. At no time did The Post reporter act in a way that could be considered to be clandestine or irresponsible toward this little cub."
People have been quick to trash the NY Post without knowing the full story.
For the rest of their letter, see http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/8092.htm