By: Innocent Smith

The plight of the worldwide tiger community has brought two great men together: Leonardo DiCaprio and Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia’s tough-guy prime minister Vladimir Putin called Hollywood heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio a real man after the actor’s plane had to make make an emergency landing on the way to a summit on tigers in Putin’s native Saint Petersburg.

Putin was reading from prepared remarks on tigers when he suddenly spotted the “Titanic” star in the crowd.

The Russian leader then revealed an uncanny knowledge of DiCaprio’s difficulties in getting to the conference and described him as a hero who made the tiger cause proud.

“I would like to thank you for coming despite all the obstacles,” Putin told DiCaprio, who also pledged one million dollars to the campaign to save tigers from extinction.

“A person with less stable nerves could have decided against coming, could have read it as a sign — that it was not worth going,” Putin said…

“In our country, they have a saying — a real man,” he concluded.

If there is anything the Russian leader knows about, it is being a “real man.”

I bet Putin is out looking for tigers he might save on horseback in this picture.

Now I’m all for looking after the creatures God has given mankind dominion over, but listen to the rationale employed by the silver screen stud DiCaprio in describing why he cares so much for tigers (aka “animals that eat their own young and would tear your face off in a heartbeat, no matter how many Golden Globes you have on the old mantle back home”).

“If we don’t take action now, one of the most iconic animals on our planet could be gone in just a few decades. By saving tigers, we can also protect some of our last remaining ancient forests and improve the lives of indigenous communities.”

In Leo’s star-studded world, a tiger is first and foremost worth saving not because we should be good stewards of God’s creation, or because it is a creature that keeps the population of other animals under control, but because, like Leo himself, it is an “icon.”  Animals like the tiger become “icons” because people in Hollywood create bouncing, talking versions of the ferocious, deadly creature and little kids grow up to think that every tiger death is a Winnie the Pooh character homicide.

People in third world nations have to clear land to do things like cultivate land to grow food so poor people can eat and not die, necessitating more actors to do more commercials about people dying from hunger around the globe.

Not convinced to join the effort with Leo?  What if Putin promises to never take his shirt off again?