It's controversial to not only keep tigers in captivity (like any zoo in any country) but especially to keep breeding them and "retiring" the "old" 3-year olds to small cages for the rest of their lives given they are no longer "useful" for tourists (who are ready to see "smallest", "small", "medium", and "big" cats ranging from 3 months to 2-3 years old). It sucks that tigers must be born, torn from their mothers in order to get used to humans, be woken up constantly during the days they would otherwise sleep away in order to be more interesting for tourists and their photos for the first 3 years of their lives, and then spend the rest of their days (20+ years) pacing frantically in a tiny cage rather than out hunting and getting exercise. But, sometimes the alternative of being endangered and yet hunted in the wild is not great either.
In any case, as an animal lover with the dream of touching such a creature, the experience was good. Overall, it was cool, though touching a sleeping tiger isn't as exciting as it might seem. After all, the staff members are very strict about always approaching from behind and never touching the tiger beyond the mid-section of its back.
Bottom line: I'm glad I had this experience, but I wouldn't recommend it to others--at least not unless you know that you won't be wowed necessarily. The tigers will mostly all be sleeping (or as some others claim: drugged, though cats do sleep a lot).
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