Siegfried and Roy 2003 tiger attack

Arizona Docent

Arizona Docent

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
An event from 2003 is of course old news by now, but a key witness has made his opinion public for the first time. In case anyone doesn't know, Siegfried and Roy were extremely popular Las Vegas illusionists who used several white tigers and other animals (including white lions) in their act. I saw the act myself in summer 1990, shortly after the Mirage Hotel had opened and built a special stage just for their show. During a show in 2003 one of the tigers bit Roy and dragged him offstage by the neck. He nearly died and is suffering life-long injuries.

This article centers on the testimony of one of their animal handlers who was present during the attack. The story that Siegfried gave at the time is that Roy suffered a stroke and fell down and the tiger was trying to protect him by dragging him offstage. This account from the animal handler offers a significantly different interpretation...
Siegfried & Roy tiger handler says the real cause of 2003 mauling was covered up
 
Yassa said:
Did anyone ever believe this "the tiger wanted to rescue Roy"- story?!
Click to expand...
Its rather like the 'Jambo the gorilla saving the boy that fell into his enclosure story'. So many people still believe that. I imagine the tiger dragging the handler off stage was like a wild one dragging a dead prey animal, preparatory to starting to eat it...
 
One could always split the difference and consider he might well have had a stroke, or been on the verge of one, and sensing this is why he was deemed an easy target by the tiger.... leastways this was always my presumption :p
 
Still astounds me that this kind of performance is still permitted and even lauded by some in this day and age.
 
That incident happened more than 15 years ago, and those years have seen tremendous changes in the living conditions of animals, court decisions whether some animals are "non-human persons," and first, the departure of elephants from the Ringling Circus and then almost-immediate folding of the whole circus. A big spotlight was, thankfully, put on animals in the public eye, and it will not go away. I'm not at all sure that acts like this would be allowed, let alone lauded, anymore.
 
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