Iain Clacher
Despite a near-fatal mauling and calls to retire from animal rights activists, gay illusionists Siegfried and Roy’s long term relationship with tigers is far from over.
The famous duo last week showed off five new six-week old, seven kilogram tiger cubs at their Las Vegas compound.
The pair is also planning a showbiz comeback slated for next February – nearly six years after Roy Horn was mauled on stage by a 172 kilogram white Bengal tiger.
The tiger, called Montecore, grasped Horn’s throat in his jaws and dragged him off stage.
The attack left the performer near-death, partially paralyzed with a damaged neck artery and a crushed windpipe.
Siegfried Fischbacher said the new cubs would assist Horn in his recovery.
"That gives him a reason to get up in the morning," Fischbacher said.
The tiger cubs, four females and one male, will be part of the performers’ animal breeding program but will also be on display at The Mirage, a Las Vegas casino, which also exhibits lions, leopards and a panther.
Fischbacher said he was not sure if the cubs would be part of the duo’s comeback show next year.
“They are just a part of our life,” Fischbacher told reporters.
"Our purpose is to keep them from extinction."
However, animal rights activists have long criticized the pair for using wild animals in their stage shows.
When Horn was mauled, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) urged the pair to retire and build a sanctuary for their animals.
"Perhaps [this] frightening incident will make you realise that a brightly lit stage with pounding music and a screaming audience is not the natural habitat for tigers, lions or any other exotic animals,” PETA spokesperson Dan Mathews wrote in a letter to the duo.
“The only natural thing that happened on that stage was that this majestic animal lashed out against a captor who was beating him with a microphone because he wouldn't do a trick.
“No matter how much you say that you love the wild animals whom you have confined continents away from their natural homes, you are still the men who have subjugated their wills and natures to further your own careers," Mathews said.
The performers believe Montecore sensed Horn had suffered a “mini-stroke” and was trying to drag him to safety.
Though they rarely speak about their sexuality, the illusionists have admitted they were once lovers after they met while working on a cruise ship in 1957.
After the 2003 mauling, Siegfried said his bond with Roy "is a relationship second to none".
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I think some animal rights activists are going over the top here. Not their natural environment, yes. However, the animals all appear to be treated with the utmost care and loving devotion befitting of them. Most of them, also, have grown up under these circumstances and are, I'd assume, completely used to the lights and music and such (the ones used in performances at least). I have nothing against activists of any kind, but I hate it when they try making something out of very, very little or capitalise on some form of tragedy... 
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