The owner of Sheba, the eight-year-old Bengal tiger that escaped from a 11.5ha farm where she had been hand-reared, has urged the government to reconsider the laws governing ownership of exotic animals in South Africa.
Rassie Erasmus told the Sunday Times of the emotional stress and trauma he had to endure from the public after Sheba’s escape, which made international headlines this week after the fence to her enclosure on Erasmus’s plot in Walkers Fruit Farm, south of Johannesburg, was cut. Erasmus claimed it was an aggrieved former employee.
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The community banded together as a frantic three-day search for the predator followed, which ended in Erasmus shooting the animal early on Wednesday morning after she ventured to a nearby farm, about 3km from her enclosure, posing a threat to the lives of residents and livestock.
I raised predators. I’ve been into their camp on a daily basis and I’m yet to find a more dangerous predator than those on Facebook
— Rassie Erasmus
“I would encourage them [the government] with everything in me to change the laws around big cats. I don’t know why the country hasn’t worked on these laws many years ago. If a situation like this arises then it’s too late. You’re not allowed to keep a lion or other cats, but you’re allowed to keep a tiger. It doesn’t make sense because a tiger is more dangerous than a lion, it’s a solitary hunter, it’s a snapper, not a choker like a lion — a lion chokes you, a tiger snaps.”
Erasmus said Sheba’s escape and death had left a “gaping hole” in his soul, and the court of public opinion wasn’t making it any easier.
“I raised predators. I’ve been into their camp on a daily basis and I’m yet to find a more dangerous predator than those on Facebook. These cats have a reputation. Yes, they can kill, but they kill instantaneously, not like the public, who kill with sensation — that’s a different thing.”
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Sheba stayed in a catchment camp on the property, where she killed a fallow deer on Friday. She remained there until Saturday, when she attacked 39-year-old William Mokoena in Walkerville.
Mokoena was treated in hospital. He has hired a lawyer pending legal action.
The tiger also killed two dogs and a pig before she was shot.
Erasmus said anyone wanting to own a big cat should understand the financial pressure that comes with it.
“If you keep tigers or big cats like this, you have to have a cold room or a walk-in freezer, which need to be cleaned out on a regular basis. You have to have an incinerator — meat they don’t utilise you have to incinerate. The expenses are endless.
“If I had to estimate what it would cost me at normal prices for meat I would say about R60,000 a month for both tigers. That is over and above the vitamins and predator powders you need to supplement if the meat does not have skin or bones. The expenses are astronomical, you’re talking about R75,000 a month.”
Erasmus said he inherited Sheba and Tyson, a male tiger, which was darted and relocated to Bloufontein Wildlife Park for safekeeping on Monday, from his mother.
He said Tyson and Sheba were sterilised and were not acquired for breeding purposes.
“It takes over your whole life. You have to have a vehicle just running for the cats, just running for their needs. You have to have a bakkie that you can send out to collect animals.”
He said after his mother died, it had crossed his mind more than once to get rid of the tigers.
“The tigers were not fully grown when my mom passed away. She kept making me promise her that I would look after her ‘children’. It was her passion. I did it for as long as possible and now it’s out of my hands. It was something I inherited, not because I wanted to inherit it, but times are getting tough now. To keep these predators is not easy.”
He said he was in communication with the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment about the incident.
On Friday the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it would investigate the matter, “taking various angles into account, and is giving serious consideration to taking legal action against the owner of the tigress for the events that have unfolded. The NSPCA remains opposed to the keeping of wildlife in captivity.”
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