Tinder has asked users of its dating app to please take down – and stop using – photos of themselves posing with Tigers after PETA Australia made a plea for the animals.

Let go of the tiger selfies

While not outright banning the images, Tinder made a statement on its blog recently to let users know that posing with a king of the jungle doesn’t necessarily make you one. They said it’s time to let the tiger selfies go.

Their actions follow a request by PETA Australia in a letter addressed to Sean Rad, chairman, and co-founder of the popular dating app.

In the letter, Ashley Fruno of PETA pointed out to Tinder that baby tigers and other wild animals used for animal selfies had usually been taken from their mothers at a few days old. Fruno said this then led to extreme stress for the animals and their parents and often leads to physical abuse of the animals.

Tinder Guys with Tigers

As reported by Time, tiger selfies have been the in thing on various dating apps for some time, leading to blogs cropping up, for example, “Tinder Guys with Tigers.” However, not all users of the app are impressed by the images, and often swipe left on encountering the animal shots.

Tigers deserve to live in the wild

In a Tinder blog post dated July 28, the dating site asked users to stop using tiger selfies on their dating site, explaining that the images are taking advantage of beautiful animals most often torn from their natural environment.

Tinder agreed with PETA by saying wild animals deserve to live in the wild. They said their notice also honors International Tiger Day, which fell on July 29th.

While PETA had requested Tinder to ban tiger selfies from their platform altogether, the dating site didn’t fully comply, but did pledge to make a donation of $10,000 to Project Cat, a global movement for tiger protection, as well as asking their users to remove the offending images.

Suitable alternatives to tiger selfies

Tinder did come up with some alternative suggestions which would more likely attract a new mate, including volunteering at animal shelters, eating a sesame falafel bowl at their local vegan restaurant, saving water by drinking rosé wine or planting a tree. According to Tinder, users profiles will then be equally “fierce” without the need of using drugged or abused animals. Tinder then went on to tell users to tag their friends to ensure they also remove the tiger images or to get social with the new hashtag #NoTigerSelfies simply.
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