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LSU fans divided over live tiger at football game
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BATON ROUGE - For the first time in nearly a decade, a live tiger was paraded around Tiger Stadium before the LSU and Alabama game Saturday evening.
Gov. Jeff Landry's decision to bring a tiger from Florida was met with opposition from animal rights groups and some people protested before the game.
"I understand the impulse. It's cool to have a tiger in the stadium. But I don't think they're thinking about the tiger, the implications and the safety of having a tiger in Tiger Stadium," student Caroline Schroeder said.
"Other schools have dogs, they have hogs, it's not a live tiger. It's meant to be in the wild. It doesn't even really belong in the U.S.," Caroline Scower said.
"I'm really upset about it. They're abusing this tiger," LSU student Ainsley Reed said.
Other students thought that seeing the tiger, which is LSU's official mascot Mike VII, was an exciting moment before the game.
"I think it's the best thing they could have ever done," student Logan Branch said.
"I do not think it's inhumane. If it's inhumane and we didn't care we would just throw out Mike the Tiger," student Ivan Smith said.
"I think the tiger is being protected so why should it matter?" student Jaylah Carter said.
LSU wouldn't allow Mike the Tiger to be moved from his enclosure. Therefore, Landry's office found a Bengal tiger named Omar Bradley. Details of the arrangement and payment have not been revealed.
"That's probably worse than just bringing Mike out there," a student said.
"I think if it's going to be a tiger it should be Mike, but why would you put our Mike the Tiger through that," another student said.
"I don't feel a certain way about it being a different tiger," Smith said.
PETA provided WBRZ with a list of more than 40 citations that the owner Mitchel Kalmanson received from the USDA, including improper supervision of tigers. One student said that should be an eye opener for fans.
"The people that are in charge of bringing the tiger have a lot of lawsuits against them. From letting the tiger loose to not paying proper attention to the tiger and that's really concerning. Why are we trusting those people to bring a Tiger into Tiger Stadium?" Schroeder asked.
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