The Meaningful Collateral

British newspapers are always good for some damn bizarre stories, particularly when sport is involved. Today, for instance, the Daily Mail had a story about a strange new animal act that a Chinese Zoo has put together. It features…well…

Yes, that’s right! It’s a lion riding a horse! Note that the horse doesn’t really look too pleased about this development.

Oh, those wacky Chinese. What won’t they think of next?

The Daily Mail wasn’t too thrilled with this new act…they even started off the article with the immortal line, ” Just when it seemed that the Chinese had plumbed the depths of animal humiliation, along comes something even worse.” Granted, I’m not sure if this is as humiliating as bears riding bicycles (or, for that matter, whether animals even understand the concept of humiliation).

In this case, however, I have to agree — there’s something vaguely creepy about putting a full-grown lion on the back of a horse and having them ride around. Does this really pass for entertainment in the Far East? I mean, if they’re that starved for bizarre spectacles, couldn’t we just give them a couple of AFL franchises? Or introduce them to roller derby?

For that matter, what brainstorming session resulted in this? Did a bunch of zoo people sit around and ask “Okay, how can we make the big cats more entertaining?” How do you get from that stage to “Hey, let’s teach the cats to ride horses! Because, you know…um…horse-riding cats would be fun!”

What’s next — elephants riding whales? Bears riding motorcycles?  Lions and tigers riding Yao?