BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A caged Bengal tiger was wheeled onto the Tiger Stadium field for the first time in nearly a decade before kickoff of Saturday night’s game between No. 14 LSU and No. 11 Alabama, fulfilling the wishes of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
The tiger was not the one which lives on campus, Mike VII.
Following the death of the school’s previous tiger, Mike VI, in 2016, LSU announced that future Mike the Tigers would no longer be brought onto the field.
According to the school’s website, Mike VI, who died from a rare form of cancer, had attended 33 of 58 home between 2007 and 2015.
While the university’s current live mascot, Mike VII — an 8-year-old, 345-pound tiger donated to the school from a sanctuary in 2017 — is not brought onto the field for games, visitors can still see the tiger in his 15,000-square-foot enclosure, which is on the campus adjacent to the stadium.
As a work-around, Landry arranged for a tiger to be imported from Florida for the game — much to the chagrin of animal rights activists, who protested outside the stadium.
When the tiger was towed onto the field with a black curtain draped over the cage, massive display boards played a short video detailing the history of LSU’s live mascot.
Stadium lights darkened and a spotlight was pointed at the cage as the curtain was lifted, revealing the tiger inside as many fans cheered.
Initially, the tiger was lying down, and soon after started pacing in a circle.
Minutes later, the cage was wheeled off the field as pregame festivities went on.
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