Netflix star Carole Baskin has slammed Louisiana governor Jeff Landry after he played a key role in LSU wheeling out a live Bengal tiger to the sideline for their game against Alabama.
Landry reportedly led the push to bring back the school’s divisive stunt, which sparked a furious backlash among fans and campaigners.
For the first time in nearly a decade, a live tiger was part of gameday in Baton Rouge on Saturday night.
The move decision led PETA to issue a blistering statement that declared the stunt ‘cruel and dangerous’.
However, the 100,000 raucous LSU fans greeted the tiger, which reportedly belonged to a former circus performer who has faced a litany of animal abuse allegations, with a huge ovation.
Carole Baskin has slammed Louisiana governor Jeff Landry for having a tiger at a LSU game
Louisiana governor Jeff Landry had been pushing for the return of tigers at LSU games
The 100,000 fans in attendance went crazy as LSU brought back a famous old tradition
Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue in Florida, shot to fame in 2020 after her role in the Netflix true crime series ‘Tiger King’, which centered on her feud with zoo owner Joe Exotic.
She slammed Landry and LSU for the stunt which, she claims, showed ‘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 it also sends the wrong message to students about respect for wildlife,’ Baskin told TMZ.
‘Trucking a wild animal all the way from central Florida for a spectacle is a blatant disregard for the tiger’s well-being and reinforces the dangerous idea that nature exists solely for our entertainment.
‘The questions that you and the public should be asking are if the office of Governor Jeff Landry, the Tiger Athletic Fund, or the LSU Police Department spent taxpayer money or failed in acquiring the necessary permits just to satisfy the governor’s desire to see a tiger in the stadium, since Mike the Tiger (their campus mascot) hates going to the games.’
When the tiger was towed onto the field with a black curtain draped over the cage, massive display boards played a short video detailing the history of LSU’s live mascot.
Stadium lights darkened and a spotlight was pointed at the cage as the curtain was lifted, revealing the tiger inside as many fans cheered.
Initially, the tiger was lying down, and soon after started pacing in a circle. Minutes later, the cage was wheeled off the field as pregame festivities went on.
The tiger was not the one which lives on campus, Mike VII.
LSU controversially wheeled a live caged tiger onto the field before their game with Alabama
Following the death of the school´s previous tiger, Mike VI, in 2016, LSU announced that future Mike the Tigers would no longer be brought onto the field.
According to the school’s website, Mike VI, who died from a rare form of cancer, had attended 33 of 58 home 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 – is not brought onto the field for games, visitors can still see the tiger in his 15,000-square-foot enclosure, which is on the campus adjacent to the stadium.
As a work-around, Landry arranged for a tiger to be imported from Florida for the game – much to the chagrin of animal rights activists, who protested outside the stadium.
Its owner, Mitchel Kalmanson, is accused of failing to properly feed big cats, as well as keeping them in a vehicle with maggots, food waste and excrement. On two occasions, his tigers have escaped, too.
In a statement sent to DailyMail.com, PETA foundation associate director of captive wildlife research Klayton Rutherford said: ‘Trucking a stressed tiger across state lines and cramming him into a clear box in a raucous football stadium is not only cruel and dangerous, it’s also apparently illegal in Louisiana.
Mitchel Kalmanson (right) has faced a litany of animal abuse allegations over recent decades
‘So it’s no surprise that only a scofflaw showman like Mitchel Kalmanson would do 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 urges LSU to ignore the bizarre—and unlawful—mandate from Louisiana’s attention-seeking governor and reject the idea of bringing tormented wild animals to games.’
Kalmanson is linked with the Lester Kalmanson Agency, which provides animals for circuses and zoos and also specializes in transporting exotic wildlife.
According to the agency’s website, Kalmanson has previously provided circus animals throughout the USA, Mexico, South Africa and Europe.
He has also transported – among others – Lions to Paris, Pandas to South East Asia and Russian-Siberian foxes to places around the world.
In 2003 and 2004, according to PETA, his tigers escaped during circus performances. Then, in 2006, two cubs caught a bone disease after not being properly fed. One died.
A US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report claims that in 2015, Kalmanson prevented tigers from taking daily exercise and kept them in a filthy vehicles.
