Roy of Siegfried and Roy Mauled by Tiger!

Fox

[ambrose]

developing...

[beaversmom]

I saw a show a couple of years back of a Russian guy that rescues cats from animal shelters and trains them to do tricks in a circus type show. Personally I prefer the smaller pussy cats myself. We had a incident here in CO a couple of years ago where a caretaker of a private rescue put her arm in the cage of a big cat (tiger? lion?) and it ripped her arm off in one bite.

[BurbankKarl]

tastes like chicken

[beaversmom]

that should read I saw a TV show a couple of years back

[fly_so_free]

Yeh, I think a show with house cats would be much safer. I don't know why any one would want to live in a house where the big cats just run around free.

From what I've read, we humans only have 3 so-called natural predators- i.e animals that will prey on/hunt us: Grizzly bears , Great White sharks and Tigers. You'd think that would tell them something. I mean you don't see Geat White sharks jumping through hoops at Sea World , though I guess people have trained Grizzly Bears. But, I've heard horror stories about that too.

Any way, it has been a very strange start to the month of October. Here's hoping it get's better. (Apparently- Thank the Lord-Roy is expected to survive, but they don't know the full extent of his injuries .)

[Joy Angela]

Has anyone seen this show?

Is the audience close to the stage?

I'm wondering if the tiger could have jumped
into the audience. That would have been terrible!

[Dark Knight]

I think Polar Bears are also on the list, and I would not want to dispute the occasional lion that is trying out for the job.

ANYONE who believes wild animals can be domesticated is nuts. Those stories of nutjobs putting honey on their kids faces for cute bear pictures, all the way to that guy who wanted to impress his friends by kissing a rattlesnake (was it freedom kissing?) keep making the Darwin awards for a reason.

As far as animals go, the rule of thumb for danger as the runners feel is, if it has more teeth than you have fingers, or outweighs you, it is a potential threat.

DK

[jslade]

It was bound to happen sometime. They lived with those animals in their home, did they not? Treating them like pussycats?

These are pussies that can EAT YOU!

[Moonman62]

Eyewitness said that Roy was trying to get the cat to sit and may have hit it in the snout with the microphone and the cat lunged at Roy. 4 handlers came on stage and the cat drug Roy by the throat off the stage.

I wonder how many people thought it was part of the act.

[Fledermaus]

A CNN report said most thought it was part of the act.

[Fledermaus]

Tiger mauls Roy of 'Siegfried & Roy'
Saturday, October 4, 2003 Posted: 3:28 AM EDT (0728 GMT)

(CNN) -- A nine-year-old white tiger attacked Roy Horn of 'Siegfried & Roy' during a Friday night performance on the Las Vegas strip -- the tiger's first time on stage, and the trainer's 59th birthday.

The tiger lunged at Horn's neck about half-way through the show, and dragged him off stage, audience members said.

"He looked like a rag doll in his mouth," said Kirk Baser, from Pennsylvania.

Emergency officials arrived at the MGM Mirage Hotel-Casino around 8:20 p.m. (10:20 p.m. ET), and treated Horn for massive blood loss before he was rushed to University Medical Center for emergency surgery.

He was listed in critical condition shortly after midnight (2 a.m. ET), according to a recorded message from hospital spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger.

Horn was talking at the time emergency workers arrived, but had trouble breathing, Clark County Fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

Horn, the darker-haired member of 'Siegfried & Roy', was born in Nordenham, Germany on October 3, 1944. Combining magic with tiger stunts, the flamboyant duo has performed on the Las Vegas strip for nearly 30 years.

The tiger that attacked Horn is currently in quarantine and no one else was injured in the attack, according to MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman.

Audience members were shocked to realized the attack was not part of an illusion or magic trick.

Amy Sherman, who was sitting in the front row with her mother about 10 yards away from the stage, said the attack happened right after Horn introduced the tiger, saying it was the animal's first performance.

"Right after that, the tiger kind of turned its head and bit him on the arm," Sherman said. "Roy started taking a microphone and started whapping the tiger on the head."

The tiger, who was on a short leash, then dragged Horn to the ground and they struggled before the tiger dragged him behind a curtain by his neck, she said. Trainers on stage rushed to aid Horn, trying to subdue the tiger.

"We just heard all this commotion behind the curtain and you could hear Roy scream," Sherman said. "Everyone at our table was kind of looking at each other, like 'Oh my God,'" she said.

About a minute, which Sherman's mother said seemed like forever, Siegfried appeared on stage.

"You could tell he was really shook up, and he just said, 'I'm sorry but the show is over, and you know, the show has been canceled'" Joyce Edenholl said.

"Everyone there I think , thought it was part of the act, because no one really freaked out," Kirk Baser said. "When it grabbed him and dragged him off the stage, I thought maybe it was like some magic trick where they switch a rag doll or something."

A group of Australians said they witnessed the attack from the front row of the crowded theater, and also thought it was just part of the show.

"A lady ran past me, freaking out and it was then I sort of, in the back of my mind, thought now this isn't part of the show," said David Strudwick. "And then you look at the staff and they had a bit of horror in their eyes and ... it was like, wait a second, it may not be a part of the show."

[Criminal Number 18F]

The illusionists... signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001.

This is a rotten way to get out of a contract. I'll say my poor prayers for a full and speedy recovery for Roy Horn -- hoping that the Mirage is making money off these two characters for many years to come.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Criminal Number 18F]

What do you wanna bet that ambulance chasers are already working the crowd... "You're traumatized, right?" wink wink nudge nudge.

Maybe the cat is still hungry, and we can feed it lawyers... nah... PETA would have kittens.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Criminal Number 18F]

hippo photo

It is a good photo, and it shows how graceful the big critters are in the water. But... they are about the most ill-tempered thing on the African continent (which is bursting-full of animals that will gore, maul, savage, mangle, and just plain eat you). Lots of people killed every year by hippos. It is not a gentle ol' cow.

Even a Cape Buffalo or a Rhino needs some kind of a reason to attack you. A flimsy excuse will do, for a hippo.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Criminal Number 18F]

massive blood loss

That, and previous reports of a throat injury, indicate a possible severed carotid artery or jugular vein. Very serious injuries... treatment is surgical repair, while flooding victim with fluids (on the scene and in the ambulance, probably Ringer's Lactate [blood expander], and in the hospital, mass quantites of whole blood. Hope he has a common type).

The dangers here are not just that the cat has wrecked an important part of Roy's circulatory system... if he loses blood flow to the brain for more than five minutes or so, he might not be Roy any more when the blood flow is restored. :(

He could have brain and nerve damage which may show up in many different ways, for example, as partial paralysis or as loss of cognitive ability, or a personality change. But before they get to the point of doing that, docs absolutely must restore the integrity of his circulatory system and bring hsi blood volume back up. (Another complication can be internal bleeding -- not to mention any other wounds he got. Normal in an animal mauling to have multiple wounds).

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[ican'tbelieveit]

They seem to be an incredible testimony to capitalism. They have a passion for these particular tigers. They have capitalized the tigers popularity and as a result, have done more for the white tiger's conservation than any animal rights whining group could ever imagine.

[wolficatZ]

Fischbacher and Horn have not acknowledged that they are homosexual, but it is widely perceived that they are. Of their sexuality, a Las Vegas entertainment reporter said in 1997, "It's a bit like Clinton's policy on gays in the military. We don't ask and they don't tell." Shirley MacLaine, a longtime friend, has stated that the two "used to be lovers a long time ago."

When asked by Vanity Fair writer Matt Tyrnauer how they felt about being perceived as gay icons, Fischbacher said that he was "very honored" and Horn called it "a wonderful thing," but neither commented on whether the perception of their sexuality was accurate. Fischbacher described the two of them as "friends."

Charlie Skelton of The (London) Guardian described their stage show as one of "the most charged performance[s]" that he had seen. He characterized it as "an excuse for two fabulously rich gay Germans to act out their wildest fantasies, night after night after night."

Accounts of the show mention that the cast of dancers includes "a dozen behooded men in padded pink muscle-suits" and that Fischbacher and Horn's costumes (especially Horn's) feature lamé capes, skin-tight leggings, and codpieces variously described as "ridiculously enormous," "as big as soup bowls," and "certainly more frightening" than the tigers.

http://www.glbtq.com/arts/siegfried_roy,2.html

 

..don't euthanize the cat...

[MindBender26]

There could also be spinal or extra-spinal nerve damage incidental to the vessel damage, but they can only address that after patient is stableized re: the blood loss.

You are entirely correct. A very serious situation.

[Michael81Dus]

And the conclusion:

DON´T MESS WITH VEGETARIANS!