Kenny the White Tiger | Selective Inbreeding

Kenny the white tiger was a victim of selective inbreeding. Breeders would want their tiger's to have white fur and blue eyes and to achieve this they would attempt a breeding program known as selective inbreeding, however this process is not always successful. The actions of these breeders lead Kenny to be born mentally challenged which in turn lead to many limitations.

Kenny's siblings were born with knocked knees and yellow fur which was considered an unsuccessful breed and therefore undesirable.

I came across this photograph of Kenny taken by Taryn Simon at the Deutsche Borse Photography 2009 at the Photographers Gallery, and was really saddened as you can see he is suffering.

http://tarynsimon.com/works/aihu/#12

Taryn Simon's photograph highlights the growing issue of what society is becoming today as it seems many people are more concerned with perfectionism and creating what they perceive as the ideal 'perfect image'. It could well be that this 'perfect image' starts with such notions as selective breeding of animals but one day can progress on to limitations on human breeding to selectively choose the ideal mate by looking at noticeable gene traits in order to create a perfect being.

This photograph is one of many from a series titled "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar" which has photographs that show different issues in society, some of which can be considered as quite as controversial, however the aim of photographing these issues is to gain audience awareness of such realities in this world.