The news of humans' strange, and often tragic, interactions with wild animals filled the news in the early part of October 2003. First, Las Vegas's famous Siegfried and Roy magic duo fell victim to an on-stage attack by one of their big Royal White Tigers. While Americans waited to hear on Roy's condition--whether he would survive or not--news came from New York of a man who kept a 400 pound tiger, and a large alligator in his apartment. Most recently, in the Alaskan wilderness, an air taxi pilot who was to bring them home found the remains of grizzly advocate Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard. Tredwell was co-author of Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska. They had been mauled to death by a bear. The two victims recorded their final moments with a video camera found by park rangers.
People love animals. We tend to humanize them and see them through our own eyes. Our movies and popular culture reflect this. Books describe the emotional live of animals, movies anthropomorphizing animals behavior, and people dress their pets in baseball caps, dresses, and Halloween costumes. All of this is basically harmless, both to humans and their companion pets.
I've always had cats. They are mostly loveable and warm and fuzzy. My wife loves dogs. When we first got together I had to struggle with the idea of dogs living in the house with us. When I grew up, a dog living in the house was forbidden. Dogs were dogs, and they lived outside. Period. I had just gotten a pet dog, a little blue heeler mix that I named Punkin. I thought I was being original, but found out that lots of people name their dogs Punkin, and that many fathers nickname their daughters Punkin. My dog Punkin also has a nickname, Pooters. Again, I thought it was an original name. I found that many fathers nickname their daughters Pooters. In fact, my brother-in-law nicknamed his newborn daughter both Punkin AND Pooters. My dog was very confused at Thanksgiving.
Now, we are told, by Siegfried that the tiger was really trying to "help" Roy. A woman with big hair, who apparently enjoyed the tiger's attention, Sigfried says, distracted the cat. I've seen some of these women. When I lived in Lubbock in the mid-to-late 1990s, there were many women with big hair. Many hung out at bars, winking at men who bought them drinks, and saying, "Hi, there, Tiger!" Maybe one of these women made her way to Las Vegas. The tiger, Siggy states, was simply carrying Roy, who fell during the incident--spectators reported that the tiger knocked him down--like a mother cat would carry her cub. REALLY? Most cats pick up little ones from the scruff of the neck, not the front. Siggy said the tiger was just trying "to protect his pal."
Roy cannot speak. If he could, maybe he would say something else. In any event, while animals are lovable and generally good, ignoring their power is a mistake that too often snaps us back to reality. Wild animals are really are wild.
