Netflix star Carole Baskin slammed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry after he played a key role in LSU benching a live Bengal tiger for their game against Alabama.
landry allegedly led the initiative to bring back the school’s divisive gimmick, which provoked a furious reaction between fans and activists.
For the first time in nearly a decade, a live tiger was part of game day in Baton Rouge on Saturday night.
The move prompted PETA to issue a strongly worded statement declaring the stunt “cruel and dangerous.”
However, LSU’s 100,000 raucous fans greeted the tiger, which reportedly belonged to a former circus performer who has faced a litany of animal abuse accusations, with a standing ovation.
Carole Baskin criticized Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry for having a tiger at an LSU game
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry had been pushing for the Tigers to return to LSU games.
The 100,000 fans in attendance went wild as LSU brought back an old and famous tradition.
Baskin, founder of Big Cat Rescue in Florida, rose to fame in 2020 after her role in the Netflix true crime series ‘Tiger King,’ which focused on her feud with zoo owner Joe Exotic.
She harshly criticized Landry and LSU for the stunt that she said showed a “blatant disregard for the tiger’s well-being.”
“Bringing a live tiger to a football game is quite possibly a violation of the federal Lacey Act and Louisiana’s own dangerous animal laws, and also sends the wrong message to students about respecting wildlife,” Baskin told TMZ.
‘Trucking a wild animal from central Florida to attend a show is a blatant disregard for the tiger’s well-being and reinforces the dangerous idea that nature exists solely for our entertainment.
‘The questions you and the public should be asking are whether Governor Jeff Landry’s office, the Tiger Athletic Fund or the LSU Police Department wasted taxpayer money or failed to acquire the necessary permits just to satisfy the governor’s desire for see a tiger at the stadium, since Mike the Tiger (their campus mascot) hates going to games.
As the tiger was towed onto the field with a black curtain covering the cage, huge display boards played a short video detailing the history of LSU’s living mascot.
The stadium lights dimmed and a spotlight was pointed at the cage as the curtain rose, revealing the tiger inside as many fans cheered.
At first, the tiger was lying down and soon after it started walking in circles. Minutes later, the cage was removed from the field as the pregame festivities continued.
The tiger was not the one who lives on campus, Mike VII.
LSU controversially brought a live caged tiger onto the field before its game against Alabama
Following the death of the school’s previous Tiger, Mike VI, in 2016, LSU announced that future Mike the Tigers would no longer return to the field.
According to the school’s website, Mike VI, who died of a rare form of cancer, had attended 33 of 58 homes between 2007 and 2015.
While the university’s current live mascot, Mike VII, an eight-year-old, 345-pound tiger donated to the school from a sanctuary in 2017, does not take the field for games, visitors can still see the tiger in its 15,000 feet . square foot enclosure, which is located on the campus adjacent to the stadium.
As a workaround, Landry arranged to have a Florida tiger imported for the game, much to the chagrin of animal rights activists, who protested outside the stadium.
Its owner, Mitchel Kalmanson, is accused of not feeding the big cats properly, as well as keeping them in a vehicle with worms, food waste and excrement. On two occasions his tigers also escaped.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, PETA Foundation associate director of captive wildlife research Klayton Rutherford said: “Transporting a stressed tiger across state lines and putting it in a clear box in a loud football stadium is not only cruel and dangerous, but it is also apparently illegal in Louisiana.
Mitchel Kalmanson (right) has faced a litany of animal abuse allegations in recent decades.
‘So it’s not surprising that only an offending showman like Mitchel Kalmanson did it.
‘PETA has filed an urgent complaint with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries asking it to pursue all available remedies against Kalmanson for this cheap stunt and urging LSU to ignore the Louisiana governor’s bizarre and illegal attention-seeking mandate and refuse the idea. of bringing tormented wild animals to the games.
Kalmanson is connected with the Lester Kalmanson Agency, which provides animals for circuses and zoos and also specializes in the transportation of exotic animals.
According to the agency’s website.Kalmanson has previously provided circus animals in the US, Mexico, South Africa and Europe.
It has also transported, among others, lions to Paris, pandas to Southeast Asia and Russian-Siberian foxes to places around the world.
In 2003 and 2004, according to PETAhis tigers escaped during circus performances. Then in 2006, two puppies contracted a bone disease after not being fed properly. One died.
A US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report states that in 2015, Kalmanson prevented the tigers from getting daily exercise and kept them in dirty vehicles.
