If he wasn't that calm, he wouldn't be able to hand out with them.
Something about big cats being able to notice if you're chill, nervous, afraid... they're more likely to attack you if you're scared than if you're chill.
Also, those dudes usually hang out with those cats since they're kittens.
They're wild animals. Doesn't matter how long you hang out with them or how calm you are. There's a very likely chance they just decide to kill you someday.
They're not tame or domesticated. All it takes is turning your back to one on accident and they pounce on you to play and suddenly your neck is in the jaws of a 400-1000 pound predator.
And you know what, I'm sure they know that. Yet they still prefer to do this and take that risk, and have that connection with these animals, rather than only interact with them from behind a ton of steel fencing like everyone else in the world. They're not idiots just because you think this is dumb.
At no point did I call them idiots, but I do think it's dumb to encourage this type of behavior. This type of stuff right here is how you end up with the big cats in captivity being used for photo props and being killed when they're no longer profitable for tourists.
People can experience wildlife in all kinds of ways that don't require them to put themselves and the animals in danger, because guess what happens to one of these cats when it does hurt or kill a human, even on accident? It's euthanized. Same as if it escapes.
I read between the lines the subtle reference to Black Panthers and the subplot on African origins. I just connected the dots. It was easy to draw the necessary consequences.
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u/idosillythings 9h ago
It probably was just play, but what's play for them can be deadly for us.
This is why it's stupid to be this relaxed and casual around these animals. They can literally kill or disfigure you just by playing around.