In regards to the incident with the magician in Las Vegas

[Valerie5555]

In regards to the incident with the magician in Las Vegas, I wondered who thought it was "bound to happen" in a way, for the cats involved WERE REAL TIGERS and not just MERE PUSSYCATS.

[roguevalley]

1. It is always a possibility but I felt they had the best chance to

not have it happen. THey let the animals in their house,
take care and yet, they are wild and always will be.

[Valerie5555]

3. While some would say that S&R did a good thing by making people aware of

the white tigers and their plight by incorporating them in their performances, that if a DOMESTIC CAT was unpredictable (since I had been to enough cat shows to know if a cat was nervous about being in its first cat show, and if the cat lets its nervousness "get to it," that it may claw or scratch one of the cat show judges), a WILD CAT may be way, way, way, way, more unpredictable and another reason why they shouldn't be used in those sorts of performances, is that it is very hard for anyone to tell how those tigers were really going to act.


By the way, I meant this to be a serious discussion of sorts on the topic of animal rights, though concerning zoos, I had more of a problem with the traditional kind where the animals were just kept in CAGES rather than in ENCLOSURES that were made to approximate the animal's habitat as much as possible.

[ozymandius]

2. Even your faithful dog is only

temporarily domesticated. How many times do we hear of someone getting attacked by their domestic beast?

[Valerie5555]

4. Like I said before any kitten or cat at a cat show may also claw or

scratch the judges, if its their first show, the kitten or cat is :scared: and its nervousness is getting to it.

[VelmaD]

5. What happened?

I obviously missed something.

DV

[FDRrocks]

6. Roy of Sigfried and Roy

Was ravaged by one of his white tigers. :(

[VelmaD]

9. Did he survive?

If so, how badly was he hurt?

Wow. How awful.

[FDRrocks]

10. Yes. Massive blood lost.

Was first bitten on the arm. Apparently after the tiger got his arm, he started hitting it with a Microphone (you would figure he would know better).... Well in the end it was dragging him around by his neck.

Good luck, Roy.

[Wcross]

7. Animals!

Hell, I can't even get my damn dogs to stop jumping up on me! I wouldn't trust a friggen tiger at all!

[FDRrocks]

8. But it's cute.

In that... stay the hell away from me way.

[Valerie5555]

11. I am with you on this one

I would take a PUSSYCAT to a TIGER any day.

[uberotto]

12. We have a big cat rescue here in town...

http://www.thunderhawk.org , and the owner was interviewed by the local news in regard to the Roy attack.

According to this person, Roy is considered one of the leading big cat trainers in the world so he definately knew what he was doing. He also praised Siegfried and Roy on how well they took care of their cats. These were not your typical circus animals.

However I have also heard some people complain that Siegfried and Roy would push their cats too much, making them work too many shows. This could have had something to do with the accident.

According to the guy interviewed on the local news, the first rule of working with big cats is remembering that they are wild animals, and their behavior isn't always predictable. What this guy was saying is that when they do a show, if any of the cats are acting in the least bit strange or grouchy, they pull them from the show. He also said that is is unlikely that the tiger that attacked Roy wanted to do any real harm to him, otherwise Roy would be dead now. So it is possible that the tiger was a bit cranky and probably should not have been put on stage. It is also possible that Roy, being a bit overconfident, used what now seems not the best judgement when he kept the tiger in the show.