This weekend, No. 14 LSU takes on No. 11 Alabama in a huge SEC matchup. LSU will reportedly have an unexpected presence on the sidelines Saturday: a live tiger.
According to multiple media reports, the Tigers will have a live mascot for the first time in nearly a decade, with Senator Bill Wheat confirming the news to the Louisiana Illuminator. The school hasn’t had a tiger in the stadium since 2015, following the death of mascot Mike VI from cancer in 2016.
The tiger’s return is apparently a response to Gov. Jeff Landry, who said earlier this fall he wanted to bring a live mascot back to LSU. Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, a veterinarian, also played a key role in the operation. According to the Illuminator, Landry formed an unofficial committee to lobby LSU on the issue, involving Wheat, who is also a veterinarian.
LSU will use the owner’s tiger with past complaints, including two escapes
Wheat told the Illuminator that the live mascot will not be Mike VII, the 8-year-old tiger who became the school’s mascot in 2017. Mike VII lives in an enclosed space across from the stadium and has never attended an LSU football game.
Abraham had reportedly suggested bringing in a second Tiger to alleviate concerns about bringing Mike VII to a match. The origin of the second tiger was revealed hours later by WBRZ as an adult, one-year-old juvenile named Omar Bradley.
The tiger’s owner, Mitchel Kalmanson, is no stranger to animal welfare activists. PETA, which objects on principle to the use of live tigers in a noisy stadium, has a litany of complaints against it, including two escapes due to employee error in 2003 and 2004.
Mike VI, the previous mascot, was the last tiger to grace the sidelines at Tigers games. As with previous Mikes, Mike VI was placed in a trailer cage and taken to the stadium, where he was occasionally provoked into roaring.
Mike VII, the current mascot, was donated as a cub from a Florida shelter in 2017, according to a school website, after which the school decided to discontinue the game day tradition. According to the school, LSU has not purchased a tiger since Mike III and has only adopted cubs from rescue facilities.
