UPDATE: The Dangers of Training Tigers

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Oct. 10, 2003
Living with Tigers trainer Dave Salmoni said last week's mauling of "Siegfried & Roy" entertainer Roy Horn was similar to the price eventually paid by many of those who work closely with big cats.

"Cats are opportunists," says Salmoni. "They will kill you if they get a chance. They may share some of your emotions, but they won't have any problem with killing you if you make a mistake. My cats will kill me, no problem," given the chance, he adds, referring to Bengal tigers Ron and Julie.

Salmoni speculates that Roy Horn's tiger, Montecore, a 600-pound male, was challenging him for dominance during the Oct. 3 mauling in Las Vegas. "The cat grabbed him and tried to go to his cage, to take him to his territory. It was a challenge for dominance and Roy, who's 59 years old, lost."

Horn was bitten on the neck and dragged offstage before the tiger could be subdued. Horn remains hospitalized in critical condition.

John Kirtland, executive director of animal stewardship for Feld Entertainment Inc., the parent company of the long-running Siegfried & Roy show at The Mirage in Las Vegas, says he believes the tiger did not intend to harm Horn.

"The more I've learned about this as it developed over the last week, the less inclined I am to believe what happened was an attack," says Kirtland, a former tiger trainer who still works with rhinos, giraffes and elephants. "They are in a very carefully choreographed routine. Roy fell. People on the stage started running toward Roy. That was when the tiger grabbed him by the neck and shoulder and dragged him offstage. This was actually a protective gesture by this tiger. If the tiger intended to kill Roy, we'd be writing an obit."

Salmoni says most big-cat handlers are eventually attacked by their animals, and many are killed. "I don't know of many cat trainers who haven't been nailed once or twice," he says.

"These are predators," says Michael Hackenberger, a big-cat trainer of several decades and the director of the Bowmanville Zoological Park in Ontario, Canada. "They hunt, they kill, they eat."

Hackenberger cherishes his relationships with a now-deceased lion named Bongo and a tiger named Robby. Still, he's been attacked a few times, despite being vigilantly defensive in his handling of cats.

"I celebrate the relationships, but honestly, it is what it is," he says. "Why do we have to mollycoddle it?"

Any bonds tigers do form are defined by their biology, Hackenberger explains.

"In the wild, bonding among tigers exists while the male is penetrating the female," he says. "After that, they're done. In the wild, they form bonds with each other, and then kill each other. Male tigers kill a lot of female tigers."

Hackenberger says the real danger for tiger handlers arises when they refuse to accept the biological realities of big cats. "They don't only kill for food," he says. "Lots of times they kill for giggles. It doesn't make them bad. We just need to recognize it for what it is."

Hackenberger suggests that white Bengal tigers, like the one that mauled Roy Horn, have a reputation of being more aggressive than others because of a genetic predisposition.

"I won't disparage Roy," Hackenberger says. "No one will slam him. They've had a long history of doing a successful show. I have the utmost respect for him. They (Siegfried and Roy) truly are conservationists."

Salmoni, an energetic 28-year-old who is 6-feet-3-inches tall and 200 pounds, says he never ventures near his cats unless he's in top condition. He hasn't had any direct contact with them since undergoing back surgery in August.

Already in his career, Salmoni — a protege of Hackenberger's — has been seriously injured by a big cat. In 1999, Salmoni was performing in a show in Canada's Bowmanville Zoological Park with Bongo the lion, a seasoned performer. The lion charged him several times, with Salmoni fending off the attack with his forearm, which was badly mauled.

"If Bongo could try to kill someone, then any cat could," Salmoni says. "There's hardly a worse thing than to have someone you love try to kill you. It's a huge benefit to have a relationship with cats. But there's a risk. You've got to know that animal could and will kill you. That's the hardest part that Roy will have to get over, if he lives."

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