Tinder Wants Tiger Selfies Removed From Dating App

Anyone who has used Tinder for some time has probably come across at least one profile where the person is smiling or grinning while sitting next to a docile and friendly looking tiger, or maybe you are one of those people who have a photograph like that. While there may be some people who think such photographs are attractive or “cool,” Tinder is — rightly — trying to have such pictures removed from the app.

In a blog post last week, the popular dating/hook-up app said: “It’s time for the tiger selfies to go. More often than not, these photos take advantage of beautiful creatures that have been torn from their natural environment. Wild animals deserve to live in the wild. … We are looking to you, as part of our Tinder community, to make a change. Take down your tiger photos.”

Read: Are Your Tinder Selfies Safe?

The announcement came after animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wrote a letter to Tinder founder and chairman Sean Rad to explain why photographs of people posing with the big cats is cruel to the majestic animals.

“What might, at first swipe, look like a harmless picture actually means that someone was caged, dominated, and tied down or drugged before their photo was taken and uploaded online. If this happened to one of your users on a Tinder date, you’d block the profile of the person responsible immediately. Unfortunately, this is the reality for tigers, lions, and other big cats who are featured in an alarming number of Tinder profile photos,” the letter said.

Posted just a day before International Tiger Day on July 29, the Tinder blog referred to PETA’s appeal to “rid the platform of tiger photos” and said “we could not agree more.”

It also offered some suggestions to users who could be concerned their profiles would somehow become less appealing by removing the tiger selfies.

“If you’re concerned about having one less photo on your profile - worry not! Show how much you care about the environment and the animals that inhabit it with a pic of you:

Planting a tree

Walking to work like the eco-friendly person you are

Volunteering at an animal shelter

Conserving water by drinking rosé

Enjoying a summer sesame falafel bowl at your favorite vegan eatery

See? It’s that easy — and we promise that your profile will be just as fierce without the drugged animals.”

In case you don’t understand why posing for photographs with tigers or other big cats — unless it was taken in the wild and the person being photographed somehow survived — are cruel, here’s another excerpt from the PETA letter:

“Baby tigers and other animals used at photo attractions are typically torn away from their distraught mothers when they're just days old and then subjected to extreme stress and physical abuse. Once they've grown larger and are too dangerous to handle, they end up being locked away in cages or heavily sedated. Not only are these types of photos cruel to animals, unaware Tinderlings might also mistake them for cute, harmless pictures and be prompted to take part in this abusive industry themselves.”

Read: What Does The Tinder App’s Latest Update Offer?

There are websites and Instagram accounts, such as tigersoftinder and tinderguyswithtigers, that catalog Tinder profiles that have pictures of people posing with the animals. Those names are slightly misleading, though, because it is not only men who pose with tigers; women are just as complicit.

Most of these photographs of people with tigers come from Thailand, where the so-called Tiger Temple in the western part of the country kept the animals drugged for commercial gain. In May 2016, Thai wildlife enforcement agents raided the temple, intending to close the tiger facility. Over 100 tigers were found living in the campus, along with the frozen bodies of dozens of cubs who had been long dead. The temple was subsequently closed to the public.