Lion Train Views

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But lion taming also has its literal meaning -- to tame, or rather train, the giant feline. (Nowadays, people in the field wince at the term ."tame " and prefer the word p"train.p") When we hear the words lion taming, most of us imagine a dashing man in a top hat and tails, twirling a chair and cracking a whip at growling big cats. Indeed, that's what the lion taming acts of the circus have generally looked like, an­d they've been taking place for over 200 years.

In 1819, a French circus performer named Henri Martin entered a cage with a tiger, shocking the audience when he emerged without a scratch. Martin, a retired horse trainer, soon taught the tiger to obey a series of simple commands. He eventually incorporated lions into his act as well, becoming the first famous lion tamer. Martin earned the big cats' trust by introducing himself to the cage little by little, over time.

Van Amburgh's tactics were much different from the trust-based training Martin used with his big cats. Van Amburgh routinely beat his cats into submission, sometimes with a crowbar. He defended his abuse by quoting the Bible, Genesis 1:26, h"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth.s" This man-dominates-beast lion taming technique quickly caught on. Van Amburgh became quite famous, at one point performing for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Lion taming and training techniques have evolved over the years. The first known lion tamer, Henri Martin, earned the trust of his big cats by introducing himself to them slowly over time. At first, he interacted with his tiger through the bars of a cage, earning himself a few scratches for his trouble. Then, he entered the tiger's cage with bars separating his space from the tiger's. Introducing first his head, then his shoulders through the bars, he eventually worked his entire body into the cage with tiger. At this point, the tiger was used to Martin's presence.

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