Landry Lunacy! PETA Slams Governor’s Bid to Have LSU Haul Live Tiger to Football Games

For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Following reports that Gov. Jeff Landry is pressuring Louisiana State University (LSU) to start bringing Mike the Tiger back to football games, PETA fired off a letter today urging him to abandon his bid to torment the animal. The group notes that subjecting a caged big cat to boisterous crowds is cruel and dangerous and points out that the school ended this practice nearly a decade ago, in part due to the stress it caused Mike’s now-deceased predecessor.

“Tigers are naturally solitary animals who don’t belong in rowdy football stadiums, and even LSU’s own veterinarians are apparently rightly against the governor on this,” says PETA Foundation Senior Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler. “Going back to the bad old days of using a wild animal as a sideline sideshow in 2024 is the last thing LSU should do, and PETA is appealing to Gov. Landry to drop this boneheaded idea.”

PETA’s plea follows the passage of the federal Big Cat Public Safety Act, which prohibits public contact with big cats.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Landry follows.

September 4, 2024

The Honorable Jeff Landry

Governor of Louisiana

Dear Governor Landry,

I’m writing on behalf of PETA in response to troubling reports that you are pressuring Louisiana State University (LSU) to reintroduce its dangerous and cruel tradition of bringing Mike, a live tiger, to football games. PETA hopes that you will carefully consider the impacts such a stunt would have on Mike’s welfare and abandon this misguided idea.

A football stadium is no place for a tiger, a naturally solitary animal who shuns human contact. As LSU’s own veterinarians reportedly expressed to you, and as Rep. Wayne McMahen—himself a veterinarian—stated, bringing Mike to football games would be inherently stressful and could have severe implications for his health. LSU abandoned this tradition nearly a decade ago, in part due to Mike VI’s reactions to the barrage of disorienting lights and noise of Death Valley.

In the years since LSU stopped bringing live tigers to football games, the tide of public opinion has shifted away from exploiting animals for entertainment. Tiger King exposed the dark underbelly of the captive big-cat industry and galvanized momentum for the passage of the federal Big Cat Public Safety Act, which outlaws public contact with big cats. The public—including LSU football fans—recognizes that confining a tiger to a cramped transport cage and parading him in front of a boisterous crowd is a throwback to a crueler era, one that needs to remain in the history books.

Bringing back this archaic tradition would generate attention to LSU and the state of Louisiana for all the wrong reasons, and PETA strongly urges you to reconsider. I hope to hear from you as soon as possible that you have taken Mike’s welfare into consideration and will abandon this plan. Otherwise, PETA will have no choice but to alert its supporters to your out-of-touch proposal.

Very truly yours,

Klayton Rutherford

Manager of Research and Content

Captive Animal Law Enforcement