NEW ORLEANS — Fourteenth-ranked LSU is set to have a live tiger mascot for this weekend's game against No. 11 Alabama on Saturday, according to Nola.com. This is the first time the university will have a live mascot since 2015.
State senator Bill Wheat, R-Ponchatoula, said the tiger is not Mike VII but is a different tiger. The new tiger is coming from Florida, our partners reported.
Governor Jeff Landry supported the idea for the university to bring back the tradition of having a mascot.
He later learned that the tiger had to be from somewhere else after receiving pushback from state legislators who are also veterinarians, Wheat and Rep. Wayne McMahen, R-Springhill.
After the passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act in 2022, federal laws "impose tight restrictions on the public use of tigers," Nola.com reported.
The act also requires people to be at least 15 feet away from the tiger in a public space.
PETA released a statement on Thursday, slamming LSU's plan to have a tiger on the sidelines.
"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, said PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Wildlife Research Klayton Rutherford. "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."
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