Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/08/roy-horn-of-siegfried-and-roy.html
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Saw them once in their prime. Hell of a showman.
RIP to the real Tiger King.
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It sucks that he died that way, at that age. but neither am I a fan of the stuff he did with the tigers. Getting attacked by your performance partner is a bad look whether that’s a white tiger or a killer whale.
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That’s really sad news. This disease is robbing us of so many talented individuals
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Had it been a real attack Roy would have died, tigers are strong. While we can’t talk to the tiger and ask it, it seems more likely it got scared and wanted to drag Roy off the stage, grabbing him by the neck like a tiger do with its own cubs.
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I read once that Roy’s personal opinion was that he had the stroke and that the tiger panicked when it became noticeably distressed by his medical event. I can’t approve of using wild animals as props, but I can at least say confidently that Siegfried and Roy loved their animal companions in a way that corporations like Sea World and grifters like Joe Exotic did not. They were doing a wrong thing but for good reasons, which is at least more understandable than doing the wrong thing for bad reasons.
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Anyone who ever walked their compound knows that those animals loved Roy as much as he loved them. While many people talk about how horrible it is to have “working” animals - in the majority of cases, those animals are so well taken care of and loved that it is difficult for the average person to comprehend.
The hearts of virtually everyone who has ever lived in Vegas are heavier today.
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I have no problems with working animals in general. I just think that maintaining exotic or non domesticated animals in captivity is a problem regardless of how well cared for they are, outside of conservation preserves. Some animals just aren’t meant to live in captivity. But for the people who do choose to incorporate animals like that into their lives, there’s a clear difference between Horn and a guy like Joe Exotic. I can disagree with S&R on that point and still believe they are/were good people who cared for their animals, while Exotic was and is horrible. i certainly feel sad at Horn’s passing as well.
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Those are all fair points and, as you and I are sharing matters of opinion, I can certainly respect your stance while disagreeing with it in part. Sadly, there are no more white tigers in the wild - the last one was killed by a trophy hunter before I was born. I think that there are perhaps a couple hundred left on the planet, all in captivity.
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Yes, the white tigers are gone it seems as well a many other species and varieties of animals. I’m not opposed to zoos and preserves for reasons along those lines, as long as they approximate a natural habitat in as close a fashion as possible. Siegfried and Roy were clearly conservationists whose approaches I may disagree with, but whose goals were in line with my own. I’m glad we can disagree and still hold onto the bigger picture issues: wildness should be protected from human encroachment, White tigers are awesome, and Horn was a good guy whose death is sad. Also, the affection between him and Siegfried was always inspirational. I believe they never openly acknowledged a romantic partnership that most people suspect, but their love for one another (Platonic or not) was always clear. I feel sad for Siegfried.
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“wildness should be protected from human encroachment”
Living in Florida, I see the further results of this encroachment every day (admittedly, while living in older results of the same). A housing subdivision, named “The Preserve” if you can believe that, has clear cut old growth forest, burned the trees where they fell, and has displaced a great deal of local wildlife. Every time they open a new phase, I hear the coyotes outside my windows at night.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy living where I do, a great part of that enjoyment is because of the wildlife. Walking out to get the mail and staring eye to eye with a great snowy egret, having a Florida softshell turtle want to make a nest on my front porch and us both (startling each other), and of course, the manatee. But despite the pleasure such things bring me, there is the sadness that the only time I’ve ever seen a Florida panther in the wild it was running across a parking lot.
I suppose that is the “affordable” hypocrisy of someone who buys a home long after the displacement - especially in places like Florida where everything along the state’s coast will eventually be bulldozed for snowbirds (or submerged by sea-rise).
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