Little Tyke
“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox…” [Isaiah 65:25]
Little Tyke, a female African lion born and raised in America, lived her entire lifetime without ever eating meat. In fact, her owners, Georges and Margaret Westbeau, alarmed at the lioness’s dislike of meat, went to great lengths to try to coax their unusual pet to develop a taste for it. They even advertised a cash reward for anyone who could devise a meat-containing formula that the lioness would like. The curator of a New York zoo advised the Westbeaus that putting a few drops of blood in the lioness’s milk would help, but the lioness refused to drink the milk – even when only a single drop of blood had been added.
Meanwhile, Little Tyke continued to do extremely well on a daily diet of cooked grain, raw eggs, and milk. By four years of age she was fully grown and weighed 352 pounds. To condition her teeth and gums – as she refused to gnaw on bones – Little Tyke was given heavy rubber boots to chew on, which generally lasted about three weeks. The lioness not only survived on a vegetarian diet, she thrived. One of America’s “most able zoo curators” apparently said that the lioness “was the best of her species he had ever viewed.” As well as Little Tyke, the Westbeaus had sheep and cattle on their 100-acre ranch. Visitors to the ranch were often amazed to see a full-grown African lioness wandering peacefully among the sheep and cattle, and even chewing on succulent tall grass in the field.
Some of Little Tyke’s favorite friends were Pinky the kitten, Becky the lamb, and Baby the fawn. The lamb especially liked the lioness and preferred Little Tyke’s company above all the other animals on the Westbeaus’ farm. She was once filmed by a TV crew to see how she would respond to chickens. To the surprise of the owners, they brought in four-day-old chicks. Little Tyke was gentle with them all.
Did you know that the Bible predicts that one day every lion on Earth will be vegetarian? “The wolf also shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox” (Isaiah 11:6,7).
