Meet Kenny - Possibly the first tiger with down syndrome?

I found this on http://www.thepetcollective.tv/

We reached out to officials at the reserve and here’s what Patricia Quinn, their spokeswoman, had to say to about Kenny.

Thanks for asking about Kenny. He has become quite the legend in the years since we had him and since he passed away. Kenny’s date of birth was 4/4/98 and he passed away on 6/28/08 due to cancer.

We are not quite sure about the Down Syndrome diagnosis, but I can tell you for certain that Kenny was the result of inbreeding – a tremendous problem with white Bengal Tigers. Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge was asked to take in Kenny and his brother, Willie, from a breeder in Bentonville, AR, because he could not sell them. Both of the male tigers were rescued by us in October of 2000.

According to the breeder, neither of them could be sold because of their deformities. Kenny, as you can see from any videos, had a severe facial deformity (which was caused by inbreeding). His mouth was also malformed, resulting in his being unable to fully close it. His brother Willie, an orange Bengal Tiger, was severely cross-eyed, another result of inbreeding.

Their parents (both white Bengals) were full brother and sister and had been bred for several years in an effort to create additional white Bengals to sell.