LSU Has Acquired a Live Tiger for Saturday's Game Against Alabama From a Guy Who Has Only Had Tigers Escape From Him Twice

Louisiana Illuminator — A live tiger will attend the LSU-Alabama football game Saturday in Baton Rouge, but it won’t be its resident mascot, Mike VII. 

WBRZ-TV reports a Bengal tiger named Omar Bradley is being sent to Baton Rouge for Saturday’s contest in Tiger Stadium, according to its owner’s office in Florida. The tiger is 1.5 years old and is owned by Mitchel Kalmanson, who in online news reports is identified as the operator of an insurance company that specializes in exotic animals.

State Sen. Bill Wheat, R-Ponchatoula, confirmed Thursday morning to the Illuminator that Gov. Jeff Landry will get his wish of having a live tiger mascot attend an LSU football game. Wheat was among the politician-veterinarians Landry recruited for the governor’s unofficial committee to discuss the issue with the university, though he said he was not personally involved with securing Omar Bradley.  

“It’s not Mike,” Wheat said in an interview, referencing LSU’s live tiger mascot that lives in an enclosure across from the LSU football stadium. “I know that was a concern.” 

Reviving the tradition of bringing LSU’s live mascot inside Tiger Stadium has been a pet project of Landry and Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, who’s also a veterinarian. They have led ongoing negotiations with LSU’s veterinary school for several weeks, according to a state lawmaker involved in the talks. 

When LSU pushed back on the request out of humane concerns for the tiger, Abraham floated the idea of finding a second tiger. 

Alright! LSU is going to have a live tiger back inside Death Valley for this Saturday's huge matchup against Alabama! I have to imagine a lot of work went into making this happen and the decision makers definitely made sure to find a tiger from somewhere reputable and this whole thing is above board.

PETA — Mitchel Kalmanson has failed to meet minimum federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited him numerous times for failing to provide veterinary care, failing to provide animals with sufficient space to move around, failing to feed animals veterinarian-approved diets, and failing to have proper barriers and attendants present between animals and the public. During performances with UniverSoul Circus in both 2003 and 2004, tigers owned by Kalmanson escaped because of employee errors.

Oh.

Now I'm not generally one to side with PETA on virtually anything, because bacon cheeseburgers are delicious. But I have to admit getting your tiger that's going to be paraded in front of 100,000 people from a guy who has had multiple tiger escapes seems like a questionable idea at best. I guess the tiger keeping industry seems to be riddled with some pretty interesting characters from what we've seen of it in the last few years, but there's not anybody out there who has a good track record of handling these bad boys?

I guess we'll see how things go on Saturday. Assuming everything functions the way it's supposed to, having a fucking tiger on the sideline is as badass as it gets. But the chances of something going wrong with this guy's big cats certainly seems to be higher than zero.