Tiger killed after fleeing from truck

Police shoot cat after it roamed neighborhood, attacked dog in yard.

Brittney Speck was awakened early Wednesday morning by streams of light from squad cars surrounding her Henry County home. Disconcerting, but not nearly as alarming as what brought police to Meadowbrook Lane.

“It was like a full-grown zoo tiger,” said the mother of three. “It was massive. It was huge.”

Moments later, the female Ben- gal tiger would be dead, shot at least five times by Henry police officers after it jumped a chainlink fence and pounced on Speck’s woefully outmatched dachshund, Journey.

“I never heard her bark like that before,” Speck said. “It was like a hysterical ... almost like a warning bark.”

Journey, who survived the attack largely unscathed, was right to be afraid. And confused.

What was a Bengal tiger doing in a residential area not far off I-75 North? How did the wild beast get loose, and from where?

The answer came late Wednesday when an official with Feld Entertainment, Inc., a “worldwide leader in producing and presenting live touring family entertainment experiences,” according to its website, contacted the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to report a tiger being transported from Florida to Tennessee had gone missing.

“The truck had stopped in Georgia during the overnight hours and during that stop, the female Bengal tiger managed to escape unnoticed,” DNR spokesman Mark McKinnon said. “Feld discovered that she was missing when the truck arrived at the destination.”

It’s not the first time an exotic animal escaped onto a local interstate. In February 2010, a zebra from the Ringling Brothers circus got loose and galloped up the Downtown Connector during rush hour. Eight days later, DeKalb police shot and killed a bison that fell off a truck on I-20.

An autopsy of the tiger revealed a microchip that matched the number provided by Feld, which counts Disney on Ice and MonsterJam among its clients. The investigation is ongoing and “possible charges are pending,” McKinnon said.

The wayward tiger was first spotted around 6 a.m., when authorities received at least two 911 calls, one from Speck, saying they had spotted the big cat near the ramp from I-75 North to Jodeco Road, Henry police Capt. Joey Smith said.

Officers later spotted the tiger and alerted animal control officials but it was too late to save the large feline. Police aren’t equipped with tranquilizers, Smith said, and the tiger was “in close proximity to a school bus route in a densely populated area.”

“Unfortunately, it jumped a fence and went after a dog back behind one of the residences here,” Smith said. “And the officers had to use some force to put the tiger down.”

The only permitted tigers in Henry County are housed at Noah’s Ark, an animal sanctuary located in Locust Grove. Altogether, there are 112 active wild animal permit holders in Georgia, McKinnon said. Acquiring such a permit isn’t easy.

Only businesses are eligible, and they must have a license with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and be covered with $40,000 liability insurance for each “inherently dangerous” animal, he said. Once a permit is secured, the animal must be housed in a facility detached from their residence.

But there are an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 tigers nationwide — more than exist in the wild — that are kept as pets, according to the wildlife advocacy group Born Free USA.

JOHN SPINK / AJC Henry County police patrol the off ramp to Jodeco Road on Interstate 75 North that was shut down during their search for a loose tiger on Wednesday. The tiger, which had escaped from a truck hauling it to Tennessee, was shot dead by police.

JOHN SPINK / AJC Henry County resident Brittney Speck holds her dog, Journey, who was attacked by a tiger in their backyard Wednesday. The tiger was shot dead after it was spotted in the neighborhood and then attacked Journey. It had escaped from a truck hauling it...