Great use of resources, exactly what the state should be concerned about
Stop me when you’ve heard this before, a Louisiana politician is wildly misusing resources that could be otherwise put towards a better cause.
Thursday afternoon LouisianaSports.net reported that, at the urging of Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, LSU will once again have a live tiger on the field prior to kickoff…except it won’t even be Mike the Tiger.
LSU hasn’t brought Mike out for a football game in over 10 years. The tradition stopped after the 2015 season when Mike VI died from cancer in 2016. LSU’s current Mike, Mike VII, has never attended a game, and I’m not sure they’ve even tried to bring him to Tiger Stadium.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Governor Landry from encouraging LSU to revive the tradition. Landry, a UL-Lafayette grad by the way, said this a September news conference.
“I think the opportunity to bring our mascot back onto the field is an unbelievable opportunity.”
Landry is apparently getting his wish and the state is reportedly importing in a tiger for the game. His name is apparently Omar Bradley (?????) and he’ll be coming in from Florida.
“It’s not Mike,” State Sen. Bill Wheat confirmed to the Illuminator. “I know that was a concern.” Also from the Illuminator’s piece:
When LSU pushed back on the request out of humane concern for the tiger, (Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham) floated the idea of finding a second tiger.
So if I’m understanding the governor and the Surgeon General, who is a veterinarian by the way, correctly: it’s inhumane and cruel to force Mike into a cage, wheel him around Tiger Stadium in front of 100,00 people, and try to make him roar……..but we can say “fuck you, get in this cage” to this rental tiger?
“It’s shameful and out of touch with today’s respect for wild species that LSU has bowed to Gov. Landry’s campaign to display a live tiger at its football games to amuse the fans,” Klayton Rutherford, PETA foundation associate director of wildlife research said in a statement to And the Valley Shook. “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.”