Fugitive tiger euthanised in South Africa after attacks

Agencies | Johannesburg                               

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

A tiger which escaped from a farm and roamed the countryside outside of Johannesburg for four days, attacking a man and killing several animals, was euthanised yesterday.

The eight-year-old female Bengal tiger was put down just before dawn after it killed a dog, the latest in a series of attacks that followed its escape from an enclosure at a private farm on Saturday, Gresham Mandy, a member of a local safety volunteer group in Walkerville, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Johannesburg, told AFP.

Tigers are not native to South Africa, but in recent years their rearing has become common in the country, where they are owned as pets or bred for commercial exports.

The tiger, named Sheba, roamed the countryside outside of Johannesburg for days, attacking a man and killing several animals, said Mandy.

The 39-year-old man survived the assault and was hospitalised with injuries to his legs, according to local media. Dozens of people, including animal experts and members of the community group tracked the big cat using drones and a helicopter.

The decision to put her down was made after her latest kill. “She killed the dog in a private farm with dwellings where six families reside, it was becoming too much of a risk,” Mandy said. “In that moment there was no other option but to put her down,” said Mandy.

Tiger farming in South Africa was spawned by the legal breeding of lions for commercial hunting. Lion bone exports towards Asia were also legal until 2019 when a moratium was put in place following a court ruling.

Animal rights groups are livid at the growing trend to breed big cats. “It’s absolutely disgusting what is going on here,” Smaragda Louw, director of non-profit organisation, Ban Animal Trading told AFP. “Keeping a tiger as a pet is simply animal cruelty.”