Before the LSU Tigers played the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Saturday night in Baton Rouge, a cage covered by black fabric was wheeled onto the field of Tiger Stadium. A spotlight was aimed at a curtain that lifted to reveal a Bengal tiger lying in a tiny cage and breathing rapidly. At the sound of the stadium’s frenzied applause, the tiger — named Omar Bradley — stood and showed signs of severe distress: pacing, panting and snarling.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry decided to reintroduce a cruel tradition of bringing a live tiger to games, nearly a decade after that tradition had been ended.

Omar had been forced to travel for hours from Florida for that one moment — because Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry decided to reintroduce a cruel tradition of bringing a live tiger to games, nearly a decade after that tradition had rightly been ended.

LSU lost to Alabama 42-13.

LSU stopped bringing Mike the Tiger to games in 2016 on the advice of the university’s veterinarians. The university’s current mascot, Mike VII, lives in a 15,000-square-foot enclosure adjacent to the stadium and is kept as a living figurehead to be observed by passersby and on a livestream online. But he isn’t put in a cage and wheeled onto the field as Omar was. Previous generations of Mike the Tiger mascots were even dragged to away games and subjected to pranks that included being kidnapped and even being released to wander dangerously around campus (before being shot by tranquilizers and returned to an enclosure).

Fittingly, there was an appropriate and immediate backlash regarding Omar’s appearance at Tiger Stadium. A poll conducted by the Baton Rouge Advocate found that of 1,500 people surveyed, 90% were against having Omar brought to the game. Clearly, the display of Omar offends current sensibilities about holding wild and exotic animals captive for our entertainment.

Omar is reportedly owned by Mitchel Kalmanson of the Worldwide Exotic Animal Agency in Florida. Places that raise, keep and rent out animals such as tigers are neither sanctuaries nor accredited zoos, but often recklessly operated carnival operations that prioritize profit over animal welfare. The federal violations accumulated by Kalmanson involve multiple incidents in which tigers he owned escaped during performances. The Omar episode also highlights the dangers of private ownership of such animals. Congress sought to curb such ownership with its resoundingly bipartisan passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act in 2022.

Aside from the obvious safety concerns, the public increasingly cares about the plight of animals in general. The use of live animals as props is both outdated and out of favor. People can see that putting living, sensitive animals — whether birds or buffalobulls or big cats — into environments with bright lights and loud noises causes extreme stress. And keeping animals confined and captive for such uses is a recipe for lives of abject misery. The whole system seeks to profit from disregard for and cruelty to animals.

Keeping animals confined and captive for such uses is a recipe for lives of abject misery.

This year, Kalmanson was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to provide records showing that animals in his custody were receiving adequate veterinary care.

Landry’s invocation of “tradition” to justify parading Omar in front of screaming fans was bad enough, but it was also upsetting to see Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, a physician and a veterinarian, justify the stunt.

“We had numerous discussions and took every step to ensure this was safe for the tiger. I spent several hours with the tiger last night and you could tell he was comfortable around people and enjoyed the attention,” a statement from Abraham read. “He’s in great health, well cared for by his owners and socially acclimated.”

“As both a veterinarian and medical doctor, I couldn’t think of a better day to literally and figuratively be a tiger.”

That statement showed a total disregard for the conditions that animals need to thrive and live their own autonomous lives. Above all, the officials’ defensive comments suggest that they realized how backward the plan appeared to much of the public.

The confined, unnatural lives of animal mascots are a shadow of what they should be. And to continue to use any animal as a mere symbol without regard for their interests raises the question of who we are as a society, and what kind of people we want to be. That’s the heart of the matter.

No one should resurrect a tradition so demeaning to animals and to ourselves. When we play so whimsically with animals’ lives, or by our silence endorse causing animals such stress and anguish, we all lose — but none more than Omar and countless others like him, caged and wheeled out as a sideshow.

Kitty Block

Kitty Block is the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and the CEO of Humane Society International. Block first joined the HSUS as a legal investigator in 1992. She has advised the White House on trade and the environment, and served multiple elected terms on the International Dolphin Conservation Agreement International Review Panel.