Lion and Tigers and Tamers - OH MY!

The other day in U.S. History, we had to write down three occupations we are interested in hearing more about at the Career Fair. I wrote down Child Psychologist and Elementary School Teacher and then I was stumped. What in the heck do I want to be when I grow up? Here's the answer: No idea. So I wrote down something random.

I wrote down. . . . . {insert drum roll} . . . . . . LION TAMER.

Now that's a profession!! But then I realized that I have no knowledge about the respectable career of a lion tamer {and I'm assuming they won't provide a lion tamer at the Career Fair} so I turned to my good old friend Wikipedia for a few answers. Here's the sage advice he provided me with:

"Lion taming is the practice of taming lions, either for protection, whereby the practice was probably created, or, more commonly, entertainment, particularly in the circus. The term is also often used for the taming and display of other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, and pumas. Lion taming is used as a stereotypical dangerous occupation due to the obvious risks of toying with powerful instinctive carnivores.

Lion taming is performed in zoos across the world, to enable less dangerous feeding and to bring more profit by holding programmes like cub petting.

In recent years the "taming" of wild animals for performance purposes has drawn accusations of cruelty. ^[1].

Note that taming an individual lion is not the same as domestication of a species."

Informative, eh?