Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

I'm not sure how I missed the October 5, 2003 story of the tiger that was found and subdued in a Harlem apartment. My only thought is that perhaps we were in Vermont leaf-peeping. And whenever we went away, I would never get the New York newspapers. I always immersed myself in the local papers.

The NYT reporter, Corey Kilgannon (@CoreyKilgannon) has revisited the story, somewhat like he revisited the story of Murph-the-Surf and the Star of India/Museum of Natural History heist that Murph pulled off in October 1964.

The Harlem tiger and Tiger Man predates by nearly two decades the current fascination of Tiger King, a reality, min-series crime show that has proved hugely popular. In Mr. Kilgannon's April 18, 2020 piece he re-interviews Mr. Antoine Yates. Mr. Kilgannon tells us he was just starting out as a reporter on the NYT  Metro Desk, and looking back, he claims the city seemed a bit wilder them.

I'm sure to him it did. But Mr. Kilgannon's not old enough to remember first-hand the stories of Joey Gallo walking his pet lion on President Street in South Brooklyn in the late '60s, a time of frequent mob rub outs as the crime families jockeyed for power in New York City. At times it seemed like the Wild West was being re-enacted on the city streets.

Mr. Yates raised the Harlem Tiger, Ming, from an 8-week-old cub, into the 425-pound Siberian-Bengal mix that would consume 20 pounds of chicken thighs each day. The tiger spent years in Mr. Yates's apartment, even as there were complaints of a strong smell of urine, noise, and even a sighting. (You would have thought the quantity of poop alone would have clogged the toilet.)

I'm sure it's correct to believe that would not happen today, with so many cell phones out there able to take still photos, video and record sounds. The tiger would be on the Internet and evening news in no time.

The end of Ming's Harlem tenancy came when Ming bit Mr. Yates as he was trying to keep Ming from attacking a kitten he had brought into the apartment. The medical treatment that Mr. Yates sought led to suspicions that the bite was not from a pit bull, as Mr. Yates claimed, but from a much larger animal. The one-thing-leading-to-another led the police to find the tiger in the apartment, and in a commando-style raid, subdue and remove the tiger. Ming spent the remainder of his days at an animal sanctuary in Ohio. His cremated remains are buried in an animal cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

I am somewhat ashamed to have to admit I do not remember the story AT ALL. My wife says she remembers it. I have taken a New Yawker demotion and painfully given up one of my stripes.

I'm sure I could regain the stripe, and even achieve a promotion, if I could conclusively find Judge Crater. The reward alone is more than a the stimulus check I've yet to receive.

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