Read more
WATCH: When wild animal owners attack – Sheba the tiger’s owner gets violent with media
Sheba's owner first confronts the photographer before chasing him.
Sheba the tiger and screengrab of the the owner. Picture – Gresham Mandy/ Kalden O Lachungpa
It’s been a day since Sheba the roaming tiger was euthanised. The big cat had escaped from a smallholding in Walkers Fruit Farms, south of Johannesburg, last weekend.
As the search for Sheba intensified, scores of media descended on the small town to cover the capture of the feline, deemed an endangered species.
The pressure was clearly on, as Sheba’s owner got violent with a photographer.
ALSO READ: Leash those who make tigers pets
WATCH: Sheba’s owner gets violent
WION Johannesburg-based correspondent, Kalden Ongmu, captured this altercation between Sheba’s irate owner and a photographer.
In the video, the man is seen wagging his finger at the photographer, before lunging for the camera. The photographer put up a fight for the device and manages to wrestle the camera out of the owner’s hands.
The photographer then backs away, but to no avail. Sheba’s owner starts to chase him and the photographer starts yelling for help.
While there was a group of policemen nearby, none of them intervened until the photographer who was running away from the owner ran up to them.
Three officers then approached the owner and are seen talking the man down.
The video was taken a day before Sheba was euthanised.
ALSO READ: Search for Sheba the tiger comes to an end, big cat euthanised
‘Wild animals belong in the wild’
The association will investigate the shooting of the tiger escapee, NSPCA spokesperson Keshvi Nair said.
Authorities attempted to lure her back into her enclosure over the past few days but were unsuccessful, Nair said.
“It is alleged that Sheba wandered into a dwelling that housed many people. Given that she has attacked people and animals over the past few days, it was decided that it was in the interests of the people’s safety to shoot Sheba,” she said.
Neither the local SPCA nor the NSPCA was contacted when Sheba was sighted and shot, Nair said.
“The silver lining to this very dark cloud is that, at the very least, Sheba will never have to face living her life as a prisoner in a cage again. Tigers are not native to South Africa. They are brought here solely for the entertainment and profit of humans, and at the end of the day, it’s always the animal that ends up paying the price. Wild animals belong in the wild,” she said.
Complied by By Narissa Subramoney
Additional reporting by Marizka Coetzer
NOW READ: Sheba’s escape ‘calls into question the overall conditions the animal was kept in’
