Tiger fatally mauls handler during big-cat show in Oklahoma, sheriff says

A large tiger fatally attacked an animal handler during a big-cat show Saturday at the Growler Pines Tiger Preserve near Hugo in southeastern Oklahoma, authorities said Monday. Ryan Easley, 37, was dead when deputies arrived minutes after dispatchers received an emergency call, Choctaw County Sheriff Terry Park said. The incident occurred inside a large cage as onlookers watched, and Park said the tiger unexpectedly began to bite and shake Easley. It was a big tiger, Park told the Associated Press. This particular one, he’d had for quite some time. Easley’s wife and young daughter were present at the scene.

Tours at the private facility have been canceled until further notice, the preserve said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. Visitors can book tours to view tigers and see demonstrations of how the animals are trained and cared for, according to the preserve’s website. Because the facility did not house animals native to Oklahoma, it would be issued permits by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rather than the state, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation spokeswoman Kelly Adams said. Messages left Monday with both federal agencies were not immediately returned.

Animal-rights groups weighed in. Debbie Metzler, senior director of the captive wildlife program for PETA, said the attack underscores the dangers of using wild cats in performances. It was really only a matter of time before these cats responded in a way that is completely natural to them, which is to use aggression to respond to a stressor, she said.

A certificate of veterinary inspection provided to the AP by Humane World for Animals shows two 11-month-old tigers obtained by Easley in 2012 came from the G.W. Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, which was owned and operated by Tiger King Joe Exotic (Joseph Maldonado-Passage). The document appears authentic, said Bryce Boyer, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, which received the certificate in 2012. Maldonado-Passage, whose Netflix series Tiger King drew attention to captive tiger facilities, issued a statement on his Instagram account saying Easley had once built a winter compound at his Wynnewood zoo to house the tigers. So with all my respect as a human R.I.P. Ryan Easley, the statement read.

This case is not the first time a tiger has attacked a trainer. In 1997, a 400-pound Bengal tiger killed its trainer in front of about 200 people at a circus in Pennsylvania. In Las Vegas in 2003, Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy was critically injured in an attack by one of the act’s white tigers during a show at the Mirage hotel-casino. Horn survived, and the incident effectively ended the longtime production.