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LSU will have a live tiger on hand for Saturday’s game against Alabama in Baton Rouge.
The organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is not pleased with that decision. On Thursday, Klayton Rutherford, the associate director for captive wildlife research within PETA, issued a statement slamming the move.
Here’s the statement in full:
“It’s shameful and out of touch with today’s respect for wild species that LSU has bowed to Gov. Jeff Landry’s campaign to display a live tiger at its football games to amuse the fans. LSU rightly ended this idiotic, archaic practice nearly a decade ago after recognizing that it was cruel to subject a sensitive big cat to the noise, lights, and crowds in a football stadium. Whether the tiger is confined to campus or shipped in from elsewhere, no reputable facility would subject a tiger to such chaos and stress, and PETA and nearly 50,000 of its supporters have already called on Landry to let up and leave big cats alone—and are now urging LSU to grow a spine and just say no.”
According to a report from the Louisiana Illuminator, the tiger will not be Mike VII but rather a Bengal tiger named Omar Bradley. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has sought to bring a live tiger mascot to an LSU football game and, per the Illuminator, held discussions with LSU’s veterinary school for several weeks about the idea.
When LSU pushed back on the request out of humane concerns for the tiger, the prospect of bringing in a second tiger was presented.
Mike VII is an 8-year-old Bengal-Siberian tiger who became LSU’s official mascot in 2017. He has never attended a football game. Previous Mikes had appeared in a trailer on the sidelines of Tiger Stadium but the school halted the tradition when it adopted Mike VII as a cub.
Saturday’s game against the Crimson Tide is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
