Why circus owner’s tiger was shot

Brian Boswell File picture: Etienne Creux

Brian Boswell File picture: Etienne Creux

Published Dec 18, 2015

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Durban - The tiger that escaped from its cage belonging to Brian Boswell, the owner of a circus, the Lion Park and the Natal Zoological Gardens, was shot in the interest of public safety, said Boswell on Thursday.

Boswell said if it had been shot with a tranquilliser gun, the tiger would have gone kilometres into the bush before being sedated.

He said a neighbour contacted him on Wednesday afternoon saying there was a tiger on her farm near Pietermaritzburg. Boswell went there with his manager. He said it was getting late and dark.

“We fired a shot and it ran away. We could not search for it in the thick bush.”

Boswell, hunters and his vet returned to the neighbour’s farm early on Thursday and found the animal. The vet advised that it was too dangerous not to shoot the tiger and the hunters then shot it.

Boswell said the tiger had been in a cage but not in the zoo. He had bred it to export the animal. It was meant to be sent to the Far East once all the paperwork had been finalised.

He said the two locks on the cage were missing. A few weeks ago, some parrots that he bred were stolen.

“Maybe the locks were removed by someone trying to cause problems. I can’t say.”

There was a flurry of comments on East Coast Radio’s Facebook page after the story was posted.

Many who commented were against the animal’s being put down.

Kumarie Mogie Pillay wrote: “We recently visited the zoo. I don’t think the animals are being well taken care of. They look undernourished and were actually charging at us. It was very sad.”

Tara Parker said: “This is sickening. Tigers and other wildlife are not for our entertainment! They belong out in the wild, in their natural habitat. Boswell has been accused multiple times of mistreating the animals in his circus. So many countries have started to ban the exploitation of animals in circuses. When is South Africa going to do the same?”

It is not the first time Boswell has been criticised. In 2009 Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife accused him of keeping animals under “intolerable and appalling conditions”, and had photographs and a video of inspections at his zoo and game park outside as evidence.

The allegations were made in court papers that Ezemvelo filed in response to an application brought by Boswell to interdict the body from enforcing “unfair and impossible” permit conditions pending an internal appeal to be heard by the environment MEC.

At the time, Boswell said he was not against lawful, reasonable requests relating to the treatment of animals and that he had been commended by wildlife officials and the SPCA on the good physical condition of the animals.

The then MEC, Lydia Johnson, ruled in Boswell’s favour regarding the permits but said Ezemvelo should lay criminals charges if their concerns were serious.

No charges were laid and Ezemvelo said it would monitor conditions at the facilities.

Over the years animal activists have protested against the Brian Boswell Circus’s continued use of wild animals in its show.

The Mercury

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