Will No One Think Of The Online Daters? N.Y. Bill Would Ban Taking Selfies With Tigers

You can snuggle up to a bear and you can fist bump a monkey, but soon it might be illegal to take a selfie with a tiger in the state of New York. So all you cat-happy love seekers on Tinder and OKCupid are out of luck. Which yes, is apparently a popular photo to post on such services.

Join me in the Am I Being Punk’d? club, folks: State legislators in both houses have thus far approved a bill that bans people from posing with photos while snuggling, canoodling, hugging, or otherwise touching tigers in New York, reports the New York Post.

The NYP reports that Manhattan Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal says she started this bill to increase safety at traveling circuses or fairs, where people are given the chance to approach such big cats.

She notes that there have been seven instances in 15 years of big cats escaping or hurting New Yorkers, but the NYP points out that there have only been two maulings at traveling shows in the past 10 years. Either way, getting mauled is no fun.

The assemblywoman is well aware that if this thing makes it into law, she’ll be seriously messing with the game of online daters as part of a trend that I cannot grasp. Apparently it makes one look cuddly and/or brave?

“They can still pose with bears and monkeys,” she explained. “They just have to take big cats off their list.”

One more time: Yes, this is a real story, about a real thing that that people do, for reasons I cannot discern nor care to understand.

Why selfies with tigers may soon be illegal in New York [New York Post]