Tinder, the mobile dating app, has urged users not to post pictures of themselves posing with tigers after animal rights activists protested.
Peta wrote to Tinder expressing disquiet at the alarming number of images of people — mostly men — posing with tigers.
Images of users cuddling, kissing, stroking, bottle-feeding and even high-fiving the animals have become so popular that they have spawned their own websites, such as Tinder guys with tigers and Tigers of Tinder.
“What might, at first swipe, look like a harmless picture actually means that [a tiger] was caged, dominated and tied down or drugged before their photo was taken and uploaded online,” Ashley Fruno, of Peta Australia, said in a letter to Sean Rad, Tinder’s co-founder. Selfies with baby animals could mean taking the babies away from their mothers but “an alarming number of Tinder profile photos” featured tigers, lions and other large animals. “Cruelty to animals should never be on offer,” the letter continued.
In a blog post, Tinder replied: “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.”
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The company, which is owned by Match Group, the parent company of the dating websites Match.com, Ok Cupid and Plenty of Fish, added that it would donate $10,000 to Project Cat, the conservation movement.
Critics accused Tinder of not going far enough, saying that the company could have banned users who took such selfies and made a larger donation. The app is used in more than 190 countries and produces 26 million matches a day.
The trend for photographs with wild animals began about three years ago. Patti Stanger, the American businesswoman who starred in the dating reality television series The Millionaire Matchmaker, suggested that men think “If I can tame a tiger, then I’m worth dating — and I could tame you.”
Paul Armstrong, author of Disruptive Technologies, suggested that Tinder’s decision comes amid closer scrutiny of social media. “ It is being more closely looked at, with things like terrorism,” he said. “Tinder is not normally on people’s radar because it’s seen as a fluffy network which helps people get together. But if they had really taken this issue to heart, they could have done a lot more. It’s a step removed from banning people who post the photos or tackling the issue at source or donating a significant amount of profits to this.
“These kinds of pictures are not politically that cool any more. It’s not going to affect their bottom line.”
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Tinder suggested that people concerned about having fewer photos on their profiles could replace them with “a pic of you planting a tree, walking to work, volunteering at an animal shelter, conserving water by drinking rosé, [or] enjoying a summer sesame falafel bowl at your favourite vegan eatery”.
The decision by Tinder to deter tiger selfies comes amid a growing outcry over trophy hunting, including the killing of Cecil the lion and his son, Xanda.
This week The Times revealed that Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire who owns Arsenal football club, had launched an online hunting channel that shows lions and elephants being killed for sport.