A Pat On The Back For Shooting A Tiger

So down in West Palm Beach Florida, there’s the B-movie actor named Steve Sipek who has a thing for wild cats…and we’re not talking about alley cats here either. The guy has lions, tigers, and cougars on his property. That’s probably not a great idea to begin with, but hey, it’s free country and if you can take care of the cats, so be it.

Problem is, Sipek couldn’t properly take care of his animals. One of them, a 600 pound plus tiger named Bobo, got loose. Now, it’s bad enough that we’re talking about a tiger here, but Bobo had actually hurt someone badly before

“Two years ago, (Bobo) clamped his jaws into the skull of Carol Pistilli, a wild-cat lover who was painting cages at Sipek’s place. Six surgeries later, Pistilli still lacks hearing in one ear and full use of her facial muscles.”

So you have this extremely dangerous wild animal roaming around the countryside and of course, Fish and Wildlife is trying to round it up.

So a Fish and Wildlife agent runs across the tiger and calls in a dart team to try to put it to sleep, but then things start to go wrong. As the chairman of the Wildlife Commission explains it,

“The tiger, which has a history of attacking a human, pinned its ears back, bared its teeth and lunged at the officer. When a tiger does that, chances are it’s going to kill you, and you have a fraction of a second to react.”

When that happened, the officer did the reasonable thing, he shot the tiger and killed it.

Unsurprisingly Sipek, who was responsible for the tiger getting loose and wasn’t present when it was shot, said he suspected the tiger was probably asleep when it was gunned down. Yeah, right.

So what do you think happened after that? Was there a huge outpouring of support for the Fish and Wildlife agent who may have saved lives by killing that tiger? Were people cheering because a government agency finally did something right? Was the local community happy to be safe again?

Oh no, quite the opposite

“The backlash following the shooting death of Bobo the tiger has gotten so bad, wildlife officers are forced to fear for their lives.

Telephone threats abound. Willie Puz, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is only the messenger, and he’s gotten five telephoned death threats himself.

“I’ve had four death threats by shooting and one last night by hanging. She said I should be hung,” Puz said.

He said he personally has handled more than 300 telephone calls in addition to 300 e-mails. He estimates that 90-95 percent of the calls and e-mails were critical, and some were vicious.

…The threats got so bad that Florida wildlife officers have been advised to leave their khaki and green uniforms in the closet.”

I’m not sure if the people complaining are animal rights wackos or naive dopes who don’t understand that a tiger like that could rip a human being’s throat out with all the effort that it takes us to squash a fly, but it’s time to deliver a reality check.

We’re talking about a TIGER, not a chihuahua here. This thing could have easily KILLED SOMEBODY. Who in their right mind expects some poor guy at Fish & Wildlife to risk not coming home to his wife and kids rather than fire on Bobo the tiger?

Somebody needs to buy a clue for these imbeciles who are ranting at these wildlife officers and it might as well be me.

A tiger’s life isn’t very important in the scheme of things, next to the life of a man. In fact, if the choice were between gunning down every single tiger in North America or saving of the life of one human being, it would be the easiest decision anyone should have to make today. Easier than what to eat for breakfast, easier than what to watch on TV, easier than deciding who to vote for in November.

I’m not saying we should be cruel to animals, mistreat them, or wipe ’em out on a whim. To the contrary, I loathe people who abuse animals and I just adore my little dog Patton. But, when it gets right down to it, there should be no question at all in anyone’s mind about which is more important, the life of a human being or the life of an animal and it’s too bad so many people apparently need to be reminded about that.

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