Chapter 467: Chapter 235: I Want Tigers! Not Pet Cats

"We’ve looked over Xianlai’s proposal. Your facilities are indeed excellent, and the grounds are spacious enough. But it is a new Zoo, after all. You have no experience in the management, breeding, and disease prevention of large felines, especially South China Tigers."

"To ensure these five South China Tigers can live healthy lives and breed successfully at Xianlai, and also to gather more scientific data on captive populations."

"We hope Xianlai will agree that for the first three years after the tigers are introduced, our base will dispatch a five-person technical team—including keepers, a Veterinarian, and a behavioral research specialist—to be stationed at Xianlai and take full responsibility for the daily management, healthcare, behavioral observation, and breeding guidance of these five South China Tigers."

"Xianlai will need to cooperate fully and provide all necessary support. At the same time, ownership of these five tigers and their descendants will remain with the base."

"Xianlai will have the right to house, exhibit, and use them for public education, but major decisions involving transfers, exchanges, or breeding pairs will require prior written consent from the base."

"Furthermore, the methods of exhibition and feeding must also strictly follow the scientifically validated plans established by the base and cannot be changed arbitrarily."

Director Liu finished speaking.

Chief Wang also added, "This is also for the better protection of the tigers, to accumulate data on the survival and reproduction of South China Tigers in different environments, providing a reference for future conservation work. We hope Director Yang and Xianlai can understand and support this."

On his side of the screen, Yang Qi’s expression, which had started with anticipation, slowly grew still and then became completely blank.

’A resident technical team to take over all management?’

’Ownership and major decision-making rights belong to the base?’

’The exhibition and feeding methods must strictly follow their plan?’

’This wasn’t about acquiring tigers.’

’This was just asking for five "Grand Emperors" to come take over!’

’And it would turn my own core Tiger Mountain area into their personal testing ground and satellite exhibit!’

’And I’d be tied down for three years.’

’After three years, the opportunity would be long gone. It was doubtful Xianlai could ever build up its own management team!’

More importantly, this restrictive model, where his hands would be tied and he’d be completely under their thumb, ran completely counter to his planned philosophy of restoring the tigers’ wild nature in a semi-free-range environment.

Xianlai had set aside nearly seventeen acres each for Tiger Mountain and Lion Mountain!

That was an entire seventeen acres of meticulously designed mountain forests and stream-filled valleys, all meant to simulate a natural habitat.

The goal was to preserve the wildness and vitality of these apex predators to the greatest extent possible, allowing them to roam, explore, and even engage in a degree of hunting behavior relatively freely.

Yang Qi’s planned feeding method wasn’t the traditional scheduled tossing of meat chunks at a fixed spot. Instead, it involved releasing live prey like pigs and sheep into a specific area, letting the tigers track, stalk, and kill for themselves!

There would certainly be controversy.

But Yang Qi believed that this was true respect for these kings of the mountain and forest, and also true wildlife education for the visitors.

It would let them see tigers, not big cats that had lost their souls to captivity.

Yang Qi had once seen a video of an exhibit at some Zoo that called itself a "Tiger Garden."

The result was seven listless tigers crammed into a concrete pit of less than one hundred square meters. Visitors fed them through the glass, and the tigers ate mechanically.

’Was that conservation?’

’That was putting tigers in prison!’

’Cruelty disguised as conservation.’

Yang Qi could understand why the breeding base had its own ideas and concerns, given that Xianlai was providing such a large and "wild" environment for the tigers.

After all, their primary mission was to ensure the tigers’ survival and reproduction. They prioritized stability and were accustomed to the old, highly-controlled, micromanaged model of captive breeding.

But understanding was one thing; accepting conditions that amounted to a ’humiliating surrender of the Zoo’s autonomy’?

Absolutely impossible!

"I refuse."

Yang Qi’s voice came through the speaker.

Calm, clear, and without a trace of hesitation.

On the other end of the video call, Pang Yunrui, An Yumin, Luo City, as well as Director Liu and Chief Wang, were all momentarily stunned.

They clearly hadn’t expected Yang Qi to refuse so decisively, leaving no room for negotiation.

Pang Yunrui, looking a bit awkward and hesitant, spoke to the screen in a low voice, "Um, well, the conditions are a bit harsh, I admit. But it’s five South China Tigers, all of them in excellent condition. And the male is one of the base’s famous breeding studs..."

"How about we discuss the details? For example, the number of people on the dispatched team, their authority, or maybe shortening the time frame?"

Director Liu’s and Chief Wang’s expressions also soured.

Although they had proposed such conditions with the tigers’ safety in mind, it was also undeniably an attempt to strengthen their influence over an emerging power like Xianlai.

They hadn’t expected this young director to reject them so bluntly.

"I support the Director."

An Yumin spoke up then, her gaze firm. "We at Xianlai want to bring in animals to give them a better life, and also to explore more scientific management models that are more respectful of their natural instincts."

"If we don’t even have the most basic autonomy over their care and have to do everything by someone else’s rules, then what’s the point of talking about innovation and breakthroughs?"

"Our own team will never be able to grow!"

"South China Tigers are precious, yes, but we can’t abandon our own principles and goals just because of that."

"..."

Luo City remained silent.

He was a man of few words to begin with.

Pang Yunrui hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Director Yang, Vice Director An, I understand what you’re saying. The problem is, there are only a handful of Zoos in the country that are qualified to acquire them, and even fewer that have tigers."

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