Tony the Louisiana truck-stop tiger dies at age 17
NEW ORLEANS — A tiger kept at a Louisiana truck stop has died at the age of 17.
Tony, a Bengal-Siberian mix, was euthanized Monday night because he was old, ill and had not responded to injected antibiotics, said Michael Sandlin, owner of Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, near Baton Rouge.
He said antibiotics had helped the tiger recover from kidney problems about six weeks ago, but they didn’t seem to be working this time. Since Tony wasn’t eating, oral antibiotics couldn’t help him as they had before.
Bengal tigers in zoos generally live 16 to 20 years, according to The Indian Tiger Welfare Society’s website.
Even though Tony was old for a tiger, the decision to euthanize him was hard, Sandlin said in a telephone interview.
He said his family and truck stop staffers were with Tony at the end. “We had a pastor from Metropolitan Community Church in Baton Rouge,” Sandlin said. “We were able to thank Tony for 17 years of being a good boy and being such a blessing to us and lots of other people, and say a prayer and talk to him.”
After undergoing a necropsy to benefit tiger care, Tony will be taxidermied and displayed in the truck stop restaurant where a predecessor named Sabrina, who died of cancer, is already shown. “We continue to enjoy her, and people enjoy her still,” he said.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund had asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture in April to investigate Tony’s care, saying the tiger reportedly had diarrhea and a private investigator’s photos and video showed a limp and spinal curvature.
The animal rights group also had fought to move Tony from the truck stop to a tiger sanctuary.