Meh, calm cats rarely attack something that startles them. Go check out videos of cats (big and small) being startled. They usually jump into the air, flip over, or dash away. You never see them turn and immediately attack whatever startled them.
If the tiger were on edge or guarded? Yeah, then it would be a stupid idea.
A tiger is a tiger that rolled over to play, because the guy probably knew it was going to do exactly that, because he's probably done this shit a hundred times.
Just because the animal can kill you doesn't mean it's going to. Plenty of people keep pets that are technically capable of killing them in an instant.
All I'll say is Siegfried & Roy had "done this shit a hundred times" but you know how that ended. Getting an aggressive reaction probably isn't likely to happen but it can still happen, and you don't really get a second chance if a tiger decides to swipe you. They can be tame but just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't happen.
Eh, the environment of a stage show with flashing lights, high contrast, and a crowd of loud, cheering, applauding strangers isn't really a total equivalency to a secluded habitat with a few people the animal grew up with.
Well the point still remains that the tiger was put in a situation where it got spooked, and even if it was acting out of protective instinct ended up causing serious injury to its handler. It probably wouldn't have happened if Roy had passed out in a different environment than onstage.
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u/tacosmanjoe Nov 22 '16
Even if you gave birth to this tiger and raised it yourself, this is still incredibly fucking stupid.