Biting the Hand--Or Worse

By Jeffrey Kluger

Their predatory prowess notwithstanding, big cats were not born to be man eaters--mostly because they were never intended to bump up against humans. But take them out of the wild and into civilization, and bad things will happen, as a handful of messy recent episodes have shown.

The most notorious man-vs.-cat calamity happened last October between Montecore, a 7-year-old white male tiger, and magician Roy Horn, half of the team Siegfried & Roy. Montecore turned on Horn during a performance, severely mauling him. Both man and tiger have retired, though they recently had a careful rapprochement at the magicians' wildlife exhibit in Las Vegas.

More surprising was the incident in New York City that same month involving Antoine Yates, a public-housing resident who kept a 425-lb. tiger in his apartment. The city caught wise when Yates showed up at a local hospital with an injury he claimed was caused by a pit bull. Police closed in on his apartment and found the tiger. The animal was sent to an Ohio sanctuary, and Yates was evicted, having manifestly violated the public-housing rule allowing him one petunder 40 lbs.

Just last month, another tiger shook up New York City after it escaped from a circus in Queens. The animal caused a multicar crack-up but no serious injuries when it strolled down the Jackie Robinson Parkway and lay down on a nearby street. A handler lured the tiger back into its cage and returned it to the circus.

Things did not work out so well a couple of weeks earlier when Bobo, a 600-lb. declawed tiger, escaped from a compound in Florida, where it had been kept by Steve Sipek, 62, who played Tarzan in movies in the 1960s and '70s. Wildlife officials shot and killed the animal. More tragically, last December a 10-year-old boy in Millers Creek, N.C., was killed by a tiger owned by a neighbor. The boy's uncle shot and killed the tiger.

Last year President George Bush signed a bill limiting interstate trafficking of large predators. Only 20 states ban private ownership of big cats outright. With as many as 7,000 pet tigers thought to be living in the U.S., it is certain that at least some of them will cross paths with humans again. --By Jeffrey Kluger