While there's no doubt that Justin Bieber has been working extra hard to stay out of trouble these days, some are saying that he's lucky to be alive after attending his father's engagement party this past weekend. In fact, he's also being slammed for shamelessly showing off a photo of him hanging out with a tiger at the soiree.

According to Hollywood Life on Saturday, PETA is none too happy over the fact that the chart topper used a wild animal as part of his Instagram photo-op. They say that tigers like the one Bieber posed with are "severely abused" and that the singer is lucky that he didn't get attacked after coming into such close proximity to the animal.

"Justin Bieber is lucky not to have had his throat torn out by this stressed captive tiger," PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said in a statement to the website. "Tigers used for photo ops are torn away from their mothers shortly after birth, and the Bowmanville Zoo, in particular, was caught whipping one tiger more than 17 times, even after the cat was lying on his back in a position of submission and fear. This is why PETA urges everyone to stay far away from cruel and dangerous big-cat photo ops and also why we're asking Justin to vow that this will be his last time promoting these types of abusive outfits."

PETA further explained, "We know [Justin] is drawn to animals, but this is the very worst way to recognize this interest because exotic animals are usually torn away from their mothers prematurely, beaten into submission by trainers, are often doped up to be docile, and are deprived of everything that's natural and important to them."

So far Bieber himself has not commented on the controversy.

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