SOURCES: A live tiger will return to Tiger Stadium on Saturday

(photo: Phil Cancellari)

Staff Report:

Saturday night Death Valley will once again feature a live Tiger.

LSU discontinued the decades-long tradition of bringing its live Tiger mascot, Mike, into Tiger Stadium in 2015 following the death of Mike VI. According to sources who spoke with LouisianaSports.net, a live Tiger will be caged and wheeled around the field before LSU’s game Saturday night against Alabama.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has publicly advocated for the return of the tradition.

“I think the opportunity to bring our mascot back onto the field is an unbelievable opportunity,” Landry said at a September news conference.

According to multiple sources, Landry has received some push back from LSU. The university has concerns about the potential trauma a tiger could undergo being driven around the stadium in front of over 100,000 screaming fans. In the past, cheerleaders have induced the live tiger to roar by stomping or beating on the mobile cage repeatedly. In more recent years, a stuffed tiger was waved in front of the cage to provoke the live animal.

Because of those university concerns, Mike VII, LSU’s current eight-year-old mascot, will be kept in his 15,000 square foot habitat across the street from Tiger Stadium. Instead, Landry has facilitated the delivery of a tiger from an out-of-state refuge to assume the role for Saturday night’s game.

LouisianaSports.net reached out to the Governor’s office, but no comment was offered. Efforts to contact LSU Veterinary Medine and LSU’s Office of Communications & University Relations were not immediately successful.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released this statement to LouisianaSports.net

“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. 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.”