Roy Horn (partner of Siegfried) attacked by tiger on stage

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  • Jim
    Administrator
    • Dec 2000
    • 1096

    Roy Horn (partner of Siegfried) attacked by tiger on stage

    Robert Strong sent this to me. Yikes.

    CBS News article

    Roy Horn Attacked by Tiger
    (AP) Superstar illusionist Roy Horn of the duo "Siegfried & Roy" was in critical condition Saturday, after a tiger attacked him during a sold-out performance, authorities said.

    An audience member at The Mirage hotel-casino show Friday night said the white tiger lunged at Horn, who tried to beat the animal off with a microphone.

    "The tiger went for his neck, then drug him offstage," said Andy Cushman, a 23-year-old reporter from New Jersey. "He looked like a rag doll."

    Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said Horn had a serious injury to the left side of his neck. Feldman said Horn, who turned 59 on Friday, underwent several hours of surgery.

    "It just missed his carotid artery," said Bobby Baldwin, CEO of Mirage Resorts.

    Horn was in critical but stable condition at University Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger.

    "Roy is a very, very strong-willed person as well as having physical strength," said Bernie Yuman, the duo's longtime manager. "I'm cautiously optimistic." Yuman thanked friends and fans who have sent their support.

    "It's touching to hear from so many people all at a short time," Yuman said.

    Clark County Fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said that on the way to the hospital Horn was able to talk with the ambulance staff.

    Cushman said Horn, the dark-haired member of the duo, appeared alone on stage with the tiger about 45 minutes into the show and told the audience the animal was making his debut. Feldman said that was part of the team's act.

    After the attack, Siegfried Fischbacher appeared on stage and told the 1,500 audience members the performance was canceled, Cushman said.

    Hotel officials said the show has been canceled indefinitely. The tiger involved in the attack, a 7-year-old male named Montecore, was quarantined at the hotel, officials said.

    The German-born pair perform six shows a week, 44 weeks per year and have been performing in Las Vegas for more than 35 years.

    The illusionists, who put on one of the most well-known and expensive Las Vegas shows with their signature white tigers and lions, signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001.
  • em
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2000
    • 249

    #2
    I'm surprised it took so long!

    Comment

    • Peter Voice
      Moderator
      • Dec 2000
      • 1065

      #3
      I told him to use a female tiger for the rabbit production trick but would he listen?
      Judging by his injuries, it sounds like he tried to fight it off with his lapel mike.
      Every-one should watch their drawers!
      http://www.chalkcircle.com.au/

      Comment

      • Stephon
        Senior Member
        • Nov 2001
        • 651

        #4
        [quote]Originally posted by Jim:
        the white tiger lunged at Horn, who tried to beat the animal off with a microphone.<hr></blockquote>

        If someone tried to beat me off with a microphone, I'd lunge at him, too. Everyone knows the way to beat off a tiger is with your hand and a little Tiger Balm (Ooo, it burns so good!)

        Ok, that being said, and as much a S&R are great fodder for jokes, this is a pretty horrible incident and I hope he recovers

        [ 10-04-2003: Message edited by: Stephon ]</p>

        Comment

        • em
          Senior Member
          • Dec 2000
          • 249

          #5
          yes i agree its a horrible incident as accidents with wild animals are.
          But i have to say that when i was in Vegas and i saw where those beautiful if now slightly mad tigers where kept i was sick to the stomach.
          Barbaric showmanship laced with enourmous doses of narcissism.
          Oh and the ducks, swans and other water birds imported and placed on CHLORINATED water in a new casino complex, their feathers were straggly and split having lost all their natural oil. i complained to the establishment but was brushed off...

          I have to say that the image of a mauled Roy is topped by the thought that had the tiger tried to eat his face it would have spat it out as it realised it had been chewing on rubber, "plastic surgery saved my face" screamed the headlines....

          sorry, but those men and their relationship with those cats made me very sad.

          Comment

          • Peter Voice
            Moderator
            • Dec 2000
            • 1065

            #6
            Pussies have a habit of making many men look sad.
            Every-one should watch their drawers!
            http://www.chalkcircle.com.au/

            Comment

            • Rex Boyd
              Senior Member
              • Dec 2000
              • 265

              #7
              One of the big attractions for audience members to watch a show involving dangerous animals, (or stunts like juggling a chainsaw or even fire or even blunt knives for that matter) is the thrill that maybe something will go wrong. When it actually does go wrong they realize that they didn't really want to see that in the first place.

              All I can say is that juggling fire made me a fair bit of money for a few years until I got bored of it ( I suppose it wasn't making me enough money) and we all know that Siegfreid and Roy have made quite a few dollars taking the idea to an extreme.

              I've never actually heard of anything other than very minor injuries from fire juggling, however the same concept applies even moreso to fire breathing which has injured quite a few performers that I have heard about and even the ones who don't burn their faces in an accident are worried about what is happening to their insides. And yes I read the postings about fire eating/breathing. All I am saying is that we make choices about what routines to do in our shows and then of course accept the risks involved as well.

              Rex

              Comment

              • Lynneski
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2000
                • 370

                #8
                I think this is a classic case of familiarity breeding contempt. How much real danger or risk do you suppose S&R are 'chosing to accept' on a daily basis after performing the same show with the same cats in the same environment for so many years. I'd be willing to bet it was the same unplanned shock I'd get if an airplane dropped on my car, just because I drive past the airport each day.

                There were more than a few stories from "big cat" men in a Wallendas tale I read (I think it was "Circus at the Ends of the Earth"?). All of them seemed to indicate that every single time they turned their back on a cat, they were frightened of what they knew could happen. And that those who forgot that fear, were most likely to be the ones who got maimed or killed.

                The liability oddsmaker in me says it was a simple application of the law of averages.

                Comment

                • Jim
                  Administrator
                  • Dec 2000
                  • 1096

                  #9
                  Sort of related, but sort of off topic...

                  I was at a circus earlier this year that had a big cat act. I knew a performer in the show, so I came early and got a tour backstage. We walked by the tiger cages and he told me an interesting fact:

                  He said that working with tigers is actually safer than working with lions. Lions are pack hunters and tigers are individual hunters. So when a tamer is performing with lions and a lion attacks, all the lions in the ring will jump on and the guy has no chance of escape. However when a performer is in a ring with tigers and a tiger attacks, it's usually only one and he has a better change of fending him off. And in some cases, the other tigers will actually attack the attacking tiger so they can go after the prey. So while the tigers are busy fighting over who gets to eat the performer, the performer can get away.

                  Interesting tidbit for anyone thinking of getting into lion taming.

                  ------------------------------------------

                  Has anyone seen S&R? What kind of barrier did they have between the cats and the audience? I can't imagine they performed behind a fence. What was stopping a 600 pound tiger from jumping into the crowd for the past 35 years?

                  Comment

                  • Rick Martin
                    Member
                    • Jun 2002
                    • 82

                    #10
                    Way back in the olden days, circa 1973, I worked for a brief stint at "Jungle Larry's African Safari" in Naples Fl. Jungle Larry wore a safari suit, pith helmet and he had a big ass bowie knife on his belt. He had a morning TV show co-hosted by an adolescent chimpanzee who's name escapes me at the moment. I did maintenance and yard work at J.L.'s roadside attraction zoo/park. One time he caught me and the other kid who worked there smoking pot and he really tore into us. He was plenty honked off and he would have fired us on the spot except then he'd have to clean up all the jungle doo doo by himself, so he just yelled at us instead. At one point during the yelling, he had his hand on the butt of the big knife and I was a little concerned that he might go nuts and carve us up and feed us to the Leopards. Anyway, the main point of his anti drug lecture/tirade was that if we were stupid enough to go into an enclosure with any of the big cats, they would sense that we were stoned and maul us for sure. So there you go.

                    Comment

                    • Peter
                      Senior Member
                      • Dec 2000
                      • 271

                      #11
                      [quote]Originally posted by Jim:
                      <strong>Has anyone seen S&R? What kind of barrier did they have between the cats and the audience? I can't imagine they performed behind a fence. What was stopping a 600 pound tiger from jumping into the crowd for the past 35 years?</strong><hr></blockquote>

                      No barrier. You could even get seated right next to the performance area. Never saw anyone try to pet the animals but you were close to them without any protective devices at all.

                      Peter

                      Comment

                      • Jim
                        Administrator
                        • Dec 2000
                        • 1096

                        #12
                        [quote]Originally posted by Peter:
                        <strong>

                        No barrier. You could even get seated right next to the performance area. Never saw anyone try to pet the animals but you were close to them without any protective devices at all.

                        Peter</strong><hr></blockquote>


                        Holy Hell. I didn't know that. It's amazing some tragedy didn't happen sooner.

                        Comment

                        • Jim
                          Administrator
                          • Dec 2000
                          • 1096

                          #13
                          This should explain everything:
                          -----------------------------------------------------

                          (From CNN) Siegfried : "Tiger Wanted to Help Roy"

                          Despite reports to the contrary, Siegfried Fischbacher said Wednesday that the white tiger named Montecore did not maul his partner, magician Roy Horn, during a Las Vegas, Nevada, show last week.

                          Instead, Fischbacher said on CNN's "Larry King Live," Montecore attempted to help his trainer offstage after Horn fell down.

                          "A tiger, when he grabs you, it's the strength," Fischbacher said. "He thinks it's another tiger, and another tiger has [thick] skin like this, and the fur."

                          The tiger put its jaws around Horn's neck to lift him as a mother cat does with her cubs, Fischbacher said in the interview, his first since the accident.

                          Unaware of its strength, the 7-year-old tiger ended up causing Horn severe injuries that have left the performer in critical condition since Friday's show, he said.

                          Audience members who witnessed the show at the MGM Mirage said it appeared the tiger momentarily lashed out at his trainer, mauling him and then dragging him offstage.

                          ----------------------------------

                          Damn, that's White House-level spin. He could be a politician. Either that or apparently he's still in the denial stage of grief.

                          Jim

                          Comment

                          • scot
                            Senior Member
                            • Dec 2000
                            • 1169

                            #14
                            another interesting fact is that tigers can pee up to 25 yards to mark their turf. If they are in a cage and pissed at you, they can piss at you with amazing accuracy. A few Ringling Clowns told me this was the scariest part of working around Tigers. It doesn't wash off in a day.

                            Comment

                            • Rick Martin
                              Member
                              • Jun 2002
                              • 82

                              #15
                              Oh yeah? That's nothing. Apes can throw turds!

                              Comment

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