The first source quoted (“Keepers of the Wild”) sounds like he’s from a PETA-type organization, but there’s a second source that might be more objective. That said, though I know nothing about tigers by comparison, you’d certainly think that if the tiger had wanted to kill Roy, he’d be dead. I’m not sure how long this whole thing took, but it certainly seems like it took long enough for the tiger to kill him if that had been its intention.
I think there are varying degrees along the scale of “tiger is looking at you” and “tiger wants to kill you.”
My completely uneducated and ignorant opinion (since I haven’t seen any footage of the incident, assuming some even exists) is that the tiger was upset about something and got hacked off at Roy. Mantecore did the tiger equivalent of cuffing Roy on the back of the neck to indicate disapproval.
I believe this scenario is much more likely than the tiger trying to “help” Roy.
I gotta say, whatever else happened, or the tiger’s intentions, it strikes me as Really Fucking Stupid, that the patrons can even get this close to the animal. Maybe the real surprise is that one of these tigers hasn’t mauled an audience member previously. Four fucking inches!?
If this is the same show that I saw a few years back, Roy invites tourist X up on stage. It looks like all the tigers are gone from the stage. Tourist X holds Roy’s cape or something and hands it back to him. The audience can now see a Huge tiger 4 inches from her, but for some reason she can’t see it. Roy helps her turn to face the audience and she’s confused; after all, she doesn’t see any tiger. Roy raises the cloak & lowers it again behind her (between her & the tiger) and asks her to turn back around. Cue frightened tourist triple-take as she jumps back away from the tiger.
Were I Tourist X, at that point I would promptly void my bodily cavities into my pants and either (a) faint or (b) run screaming like a little nena all the way to the other side of Lake Mead. I would have expected for there to be a cleverly concealed but virtually unbreachable physical barrier between the tigers and the untrained civilians.
Nothing I’ve read so far (the newest AP story talks about this big-haired woman) leads me to think she was onstage. It sounds like she was an idiot in the audience who didn’t think interfering with a performance that involved live tigers was a bad idea.
This was bound to happen eventually. If you play with fire enough your going to get burnt. My chances of getting bit by a crocodile are very slim. But Steve Irwin the croc hunter chances are very high. I am still waiting to open up the paper and the headline say " Croc Hunter Takes His Last Bite". I for one will not be suprised when this happens. Same with this incident about Roy. There are risks involved when you work with wild animals even if they are trained. And they know it! Hope Roy is doing well. I for one hope he does recover and is able to continue the show.
Well when you are working in this type of buisness it can get dangerous and he should already know that. Just surprising it hasn’t happened already to him.
In re their sexuality: I read an interview years ago in which they admitted that yes, they are gay, and yes, they were lovers, but now they are purely professional partners only.
Precisely why, JRD, believe it or not, none of the ‘folks from the audience’ are ever from the audience. They are troupes of, IMO, dedicated oscar-deserving actors.
