Important life lessons Shantosh Patel teaches his son?

Pi's father taught him that the second greatest danger in the zoo was anthropomorphism. We try to see in the animal what we want to see in ourselves, for better or worse. Pi says this is the bane of theologians, as well as zoologists.

To erase any anthropomorphism in his children, Mr. Patel marched his sons out to the tiger's den where a starved tiger was given a live goat. His father lectured that the boys were never to try to pet the tiger. The family watched in terror as the hungry tiger devoured the goat. Following the tigers, Father took them to the homes of the lions and leopards, the bears, the hippos, the hyenas, orangutans, the ostrich and elephants. At each stop he revealed to them how quickly and easily each of the animals could kill or maim them. The family ended their tour at the cages of the guinea pigs where Father took a guinea pig out of its cage and handed it to Pi saying that they were not dangerous and could be touched.