posted September 27, 2007 02:15 AM         

This story of Little Tyke is awesome and inspiring. The picture of her here turning her head away from meat and actually wincing at the thought of it is too adorable for words.

Part I:

Vegetarian Lioness: Little Tyke

Little Tyke turning away her head from meat (and wincing).

At four years old, the mature African lioness weighed 352 pounds. Her body stretched 10 feet 4 inches long and could run 40 miles per hour. Her skull, highly adapted to killing and eating prey, possessed short powerful jaws. Normally, African lions eat gnus, zebras, gazelles, impalas, and giraffes. This particular big cat, in her prime and perfect health, chose a more gentle way of life, vegetarian!

A Violent Birth

Georges and Margaret Westbeau, standing outside the thick steel bars of the cage, watched nervously. Inside, a vicious, raging beast baring razor claws and glistening fangs, roared. Flinging herself at the couple, who watched from barely three feet away, her suffering amber eyes defied their presence.
Always, in the past, this lioness destroyed her offspring as soon as they were born. Four times in the last seven years, her powerful jaws had crushed her newborn cubs, furiously throwing them against her cage's bars where they tumbled, lifeless.
Denying the normal instincts of motherhood, what possessed this lioness? Her life mocked its former freedom. She lived a caged animal, taken from the wild and tortured by those who captured her. Did she feel that by destroying her cubs they would be spared the humiliation that she endured?
Suddenly, the newborn cub came flying towards the people anxiously watching. Georges quickly grabbed the cub through the bars before it could be killed. Its right front leg dangled helplessly from its mother's brutal jaws. In the face of such fury the only thing the human could say was, 'You poor little tike'.
The Westbeaus took the three-pound 'Little Tyke' to their Hidden Valley Ranch near Seattle and there it joined the menagerie of other animals including horses, cattle, and chickens. Curious peacocks lined the housetop, kittens peered through a picket fence, and two terriers danced with joy for the new addition to the household.
Drinking bottles of warm milk, Little Tyke began the long road to recovery.

Mysterious reaction

With the advice of experts the Westbeaus began weaning Little Tyke onto solid food at three months. Leaving only a favorite doll, they removed most of her rubber toys, replacing them with bones from freshly slaughtered beef. They carried the small cub to the bones. Unexpectedly, she violently threw up!
Experts told them in no uncertain terms that lions couldn't live without meat. In the wild, lions ate only flesh - eleven pounds a day for an adult female. Alarmed at Little Tyke's strange behavior, they wondered at how they could introduce meat into her diet? In the meantime, they continued feeding Little Tyke baby cereal mixed with milk.
A well meaning friend suggested mixing beef blood with milk, in increasing proportions. Given milk containing ten drops of blood, Little Tyke would have nothing to do with it. They mixed in five drops of blood, and hid that bottle. As she sucked on the plain milk they quickly switched bottles. Again she refused it. In desperation they added one drop of blood to a full bottle of milk, but Little Tyke refused this bottle as well, and they could only stare in amazement.
Another friend suggested putting plain milk in one hand, and milk mixed with hamburger in the palm of the other hand. Little Tyke readily licked the milk from one hand, but when Georges changed hands, she immediately turned away. Sensing her distress, Georges wiped his hands on a nearby towel and picked her up. Hissing in fear and cringing away, she looked sick from the danger-smell of meat on his hand. She only settled down when given a fresh bottle of milk held in washed hands.

Thousand-dollar reward

At nine months old and weighing sixty-five pounds, Little Tyke had the splints and bandages on her leg taken off for the last time. She slowly learned to depend on the healed leg, and mingled with other animals on the ranch.
Since the ranch didn't earn enough income to make ends meet, the Westbeaus ran a small cold storage plant in town. Little Tyke came with them when they went to work and word got around about this vegetarian lioness. When she was four years old, the Westbeaus advertised a thousand dollar reward for anyone who could devise a method tricking Little Tyke into eating meat. Numerous plans met with failure since Little Tyke refused to have anything to do with flesh.

The answer

The caretakers of this gentle animal sought out animal experts, always asking them about diet. Finally, one young visitor set their mind at ease. With serious eyes he turned to them and asked, 'Don't you read your Bible? Read Genisis 1:30, and you will get your answer.' At his first opportunity Georges read in astonishment, 'And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.' At that point, after four years, the Westbeaus finally stopped worrying.

To be continued....

posted September 27, 2007 02:19 AM         

Little Tyke's meals

A typical meal consisted of various grains, chosen for their protein, calcium, fats, and roughage. Margaret always cooked a few days' supply ahead of time. At feeding time, a double handful of the cooked grains along with one-half gallon of milk with two eggs, supplied Little Tyke a delicious meal. She had one condition before eating. Her favorite rubber doll had to be right next to her!

For teeth and gums, the Westbeaus supplied rubber boots, since she refused bones. They attracted her to the boots by sprinkling them with perfume. One boot lasted almost a month.
Little Tyke had many close animal friends. Her favorites were Pinky (a kitten), Imp (another kitten), Becky (a lamb) and Baby (a fawn). Her favorite and closest friend, however, was Becky, who preferred Little Tyke's company to any of the other animals.

Little Tyke with Becky

National publicity

You Asked For It, the popular television show hosted by Art Baker, once featured Little Tyke. The producers wanted a scene with chickens, which didn't bother Georges since Little Tyke roamed easily among chickens at Hidden Valley Ranch. When the film crew brought the chickens in, they turned out to be four little day-old chicks!

Slurp of the tongue

Little Tyke's only previous experience with new chicks had been with a hen and her chicks who had wandered onto the lawns around their home on the ranch. Georges thought nothing of it until he saw Little Tyke acting peculiarly, slinking into the house, and looking guilty with lips tightly closed over obviously open jaws. He called 'Tyke! What have you got?' Instantly her mouth opened and a little chick popped out, unharmed. Flapping it's little down-covered wings, it almost flew back to its upset mother. Apparently Little Tyke had affectionately licked the tiny chick, as she was prone to do when, with one huge slurp of the tongue, the little chick had popped into her mouth, and she hadn't known how to fondle it further!
With the amazed camera crew filming, Little Tyke strode over to the chicks, hesitated long enough to lick the chicks carefully and gently with the very tip of her tongue, and moved away with a yawn. A moment later she came back to lie down among the chicks. They immediately made their way into the long silky hair at the base of her great neck where they peered out from the shelter of their great protector.
Another scene saw a new kitten, after an introduction, walk over to Little Tyke's huge foreleg and sit down. Little Tyke crooked one paw around the tiny creature and cuddled it closer.
In front of cameras, Art Baker picked up the Bible and read: 'The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock.'
Mail poured into the producers, making this episode one of the most popular in the show's history.

Little Tyke's death

Unfortunately, while spending three weeks in Hollywood for the show, Little Tyke contracted virus pneumonia, a disease that took her life a few weeks later. The sudden change in climate may have been a contributing factor. She succumbed quietly in her sleep, retiring early after watching television.

Inspiring to this day

Her life is over, but her teachings live on. Of the many lessons she taught, not the least is that love removes fear and savagery. Little Tyke reflected the love and care shown to her after the first few moments of her precarious birth.
Thousands saw photographs of her lying with her lamb friend, Becky, inspiring many to see the world a fresh way: two such diverse natures enjoying each other's love! One eminent attorney kept a huge enlargement of this photograph in his office, and pointed to it as he counciled couples on the verge of divorce.

Scientific dilemma

Science is at a loss when it comes to Little Tyke. Felines are the strictest of carnivores. Without flesh she should have developed blindness, as well as dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a degenerative disease that turns heart muscles flabby and limits their ability to pump blood. This is because her diet didn't contain an adequate source of the amino acid, taurine.
Little known in the 1950's, subsequent research at UC Davis in 1976 proved that taurine is an essential nutrient for felines, the lack of which would cause degeneration of the retina. later research implicated inadequate taurine levels in dilated cardiomyopathy as well. For cats with DCM, if the disease has not progressed too far, administering taurine causes an almost miraculous recovery. Formerly, cats lived only a few days to weeks after diagnose.
Taurine is non-existent in natural non-animal sources. It is present in minute amounts in milk and eggs. Little Tyke could have gotten her taurine requirement from milk, if she drank 500 gallons per day, or from eggs, if she ate more than 4000 per day. How did Little Tyke get taurine?

Challenge

Perhaps even more important, why did Little Tyke disown her species' instincts? Little Tyke is a curiosity to the public, aberation to zoologists, anomaly to scientists, and an inspiration to idealists.

Little Tyke wasn't alone. A photograph taken at Allahabad, India in 1936 shows another awesome lioness.
In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda wrote:
...Our group left the peaceful hermitage to greet a near-by swami, Krishnananda, a handsome monk with rosy cheeks and impressive shoulders. Reclining near him was a tame lioness. Succumbing to the monk's spiritual charm - not, I am sure, to his powerful physique! - the jungle animal refuses all meat in favor of rice and milk. The swami has taught the tawny-haired beast to utter "Aum" in a deep, attractive growl - a cat devotee!
These vegetarian lionesses are lion lights. By example, these luminaries invite us as well to discover a less violent world, turning away from slaughterhouses that fed our dogs and cats prior to this age of enlightenment.

Another picture of Little Tyke

posted September 27, 2007 02:22 AM         

Yes she did become a vegitarian but she was reared from absolute near birth after abandonment and violent abuse from her surroundings. So psycological damage played quite a bit role in her rearing.

posted September 27, 2007 02:52 AM         

I just think her story is precious. How gentle she was.

I think any animal whether it is a lion, tiger, panther, bear or whatever, if raised by humans from cubs is quite different from those same species of animals who grow up in their natural environment. But it does show that animals no matter their species if treated gently will respond to that affection from humans and in turn other animals.

Animals that live with human contact are different from their same species who live in the wild. So you are right. Even house cats who are raised by humans from kittenhood are retarded. They do not grow mentally beyond the kitten stage of development. No one would want an adult cat in their living room who was not mentally retarded because feral cats who are raised without human contact are wild. They bite and attack people.

posted September 27, 2007 02:59 AM         

This lioness had a traumatic birth and as such possible psychological barriers may have formed up and repressed her own natural instincts.

But make no mistake about it Mirandee; Wild animals reared in by humans are STILL wild and I can give you a whole lotta stories to prove that.

posted September 27, 2007 03:51 AM         

-A little off subject here:
Some are born to be vegitarian, plain and simple.
My mother within weeks of becoming pregnant with me was completely unable to eat meat any longer. It absolutely mystified her as well as her doctor. Again and again she tried... It would not stay down in any way or form. She then began having horrific nightmares regarding the issues of life energy depleting with each ounce of meat absorption. She completely 100% stopped the consumption at this point. I was not introduced to meat products until 3 or 4 years of age. Nope! Was'nt gonna' happen for me either... I'd violently vomit, become extremely ill, and even anger was noticed. Throughout the years of my life off and on I've attempted meat or accidently found some within my food. It just does'nt work for me at all. Trust me, at certain points I wanted to be a meat eater (bacon smells so good) Anyways, we decided this came about for some spiritual purpose of sorts -I am meant to be a vegitarian. My eldest son has violent spiritual dreams only during periods of meat eating. He has now chosen a path of vegitarianism as well. My youngest two and husband however are full fledged flesh eaters, LOL!

Back on the subject... I do absolutely love Lions, this story is very precious and I look forward to sharing it with my family.
Again, thank you!

posted September 27, 2007 08:56 AM         

But I don't think that even a Tiger so tame with people he/she interacts daily would be a friendly one to a new person.

posted September 27, 2007 09:10 AM         

Notice how I said researched? I don't make this stuff up then state it as a fact because it comes out of my mouth....unlike some people

posted September 27, 2007 09:15 AM         

The problem is when we humans try to implement our thought process which in effect creates imbalance.

If a Lion or Tiger kills a deer (for eg) that is not for fun, but to eat, a matter of survival. And if thta doesn't happen, the deer population would be completely be out of control and destroy the green all around and the result would be a catastrophe for everything and everyone.

It is human greed that is the problem. And by noe means are such "vegetarian" Lion/Tiger/Beer news a bad thing, as I believe it shpows what compassion and love can do.

posted September 27, 2007 11:00 AM         

It might have been as Xodian said, her violent birth or it might have been as yourfriendinspirit said, some people and some animals are just born to be vegetarians.

Little Tyke still baffles the experts because she does go against the natural order of things. And yes, even lions and tiger etc. that are raised in captivity by humans are still wild animals. As Sattvic said, they may be gentle with the humans they are with on a daily basis but would most likely attack a stranger. But isn't that often the case with dogs too?

Animals, even pet dogs, are unpredictable. Especially those animals such as lions who by nature belong in the wild.

Not long ago (can't remember the name of the two men in the Vegas act) one of men was mauled and nearly killed on stage during his act by a lion who he raised, lived with and truly loved.

I too am against taking animals out of their natural environment. There was a panther in my area sighted by myself and my daughter and in the neighboring city of Rochester Hills. Someone obviously had owned this panther and he either got out or he was turned loose because he was getting too big and too expensive to feed. That endangers other pets and people. Crocodiles have been found in lakes in Michigan and there was a lion loose in the area too a few years ago. Happens everywhere.

Lions are carnivores by nature. Little Tyke and other lions who don't eat meat and are repelled by it are different and special. Perhaps it is as the story said, they are lights for humanity and this story of Little Tyke certainly is spiritually inspiring.

posted September 27, 2007 11:21 AM         

Why do some people feel they have to kill these beautiful animals?

I love felines. I think they are the most beautiful creatures created. When we go to the zoo the lions and tigers fascinate me and I love just watching them. They have the same mannerisms on the most part as domestic house cats.

But I hate seeing them pinned up. Hate seeing the gorillas and polar bears and all the animals pinned up. The zoo depresses me for that reason.

posted September 27, 2007 12:12 PM         

quote:

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Really? Because I have researched other stories of wild lions not wanting to attack prey.

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posted September 27, 2007 01:16 PM         

12 hour night shift, coupled with about another 6-7 hour university life. Add in maybe another 4-5 hours of social time with loved ones and friends.

Right now I am at my University's Library typing up on my laptop and actually chuckling away with my friends as to why people deliberately choose to disillusion themselves about what others do.

Now OMG; This is your what... 15th, 16th reincarnation of this place? One can only picture the warped mindset of a person who comes back time after time only to be banned again.

And I can assure you, your behavior is well under way to earn you another banning.

And I did ran searches online right now and all I have gotten is references linking back to this one story about little Tyke; Nothing more.

posted September 27, 2007 03:15 PM         

This is a nice story. Why ruin it with all that? Why can't we just respect the viewpoints of others even if we may not share the same viewpoint?

I don't entirely share OMG Jay's viewpoint on nature as it pertains to wild animals but I do respect and admire her compassion and love for animals and her desire to help them.

However, it is also compassion and love for animals on the part of Xodian, Sattvic and others who want to leave nature as it is designed to be and who accept that animals are doing what nature designed them to do. Their compassion is directed in protecting animals to live their lives as they instinctively are created to live it in the environments in which they belong, undisturbed by the interference of humankind. That is also the position that I hold on this issue.

In many respects, and for whatever reason, Little Tyke is not the norm. She is in many respects an aberration of nature. Such as albino animals are. Even nature is not perfect. It has it's opposites and it's aberrations.

posted September 27, 2007 06:23 PM         

I feel that this is only one of many dimensions. I feel that "we don't think with our minds- we think for our minds" and there is a power which permeates all of creation, both are connected. Science and spirit are really one. There is a lot of research about how our thoughts and emotions are responsible for programming our DNA.

On the subject of animals, I would like to see the day when no animal will be kept in a cage and they will all be free in their own natural habitats.

posted September 27, 2007 07:07 PM         

To me it seems that would require a great deal less human beings in non-natural settings ie Western Civilization and more of them in their natural habitat which would be an indiginous living situation, a great reduction in the population of human beings, and a ceasing of the destruction of the other animals habitats.

posted September 27, 2007 08:03 PM         

What a powerful picture.

Little Tyke is a wonderfully inspiring story. We have many lessons to learn from it.

Thankyou for sharing this Mirandee.

posted September 27, 2007 09:03 PM         

Powerful expressions of love and loyalty, and sense of smell, sight and hearing trump anything we humans are capable of. Not to mention the physical capabilities of strength, speed and agility.

With that said, I do not doubt that some animals, who typically eat meat, have advanced to the point where they simply don't want it. Just like some animals are attracted to fellow animals of the same gender.