The circus boss who shot dead his escaped tiger on the streets of Paris has claimed the animal’s cage was cut open in a ‘malicious act’.
Eric Bormann killed the one-and-a-half-year-old tigress called Mevy after people spotted her wandering around the French capital’s 15th arrondissement on Friday.
Police quizzed Bormann for several hours after the incident, and an investigation has now been launched.
Bormann could face a prison sentence of up to three years for the offence of ‘putting lives in danger’.
Mevy weighed 200 kilos – just over 31 stone – and was considered an immense danger to the public as he roamed around the streets of Paris.
This is the tiger shot dead after escaping from a circus in Paris. The beast was cornered at the Garigliano Bridge by armed police and killed by circus boss Eric Bormann
However the head of the Bormann-Moreno circus, who also serves as a lion trainer, claimed foul play.
He told AFP: ‘I’m the one who takes care of my tigers. There is a whole security protocol to respect with big cats.’
He said the animals were in a cage secured by another enclosure.
‘In our security protocol, if a beast escapes – which has never happened in the 40 years I have been in Paris – it remains locked. It is a cage within a cage.’
Bormann claimed on Friday at around 6 pm (5pm GMT), that when he opened a separation door to clean the tigers ‘a tigress was out because a door, usually locked, was open.’
He added: ‘We suspect a malicious act. There was a chain with a padlock, and the chain was cut.’
Officials were pictured transporting the body of the tiger under a black cover. It had previously roamed the streets of Paris causing ‘intense panic’ before it entered a train station
Mevy, who had been bottle-fed by Bormann, was gunned down by her ringmaster using the firearm he is required to carry by law within a few minutes of her escape.
He added that the idea of using a tranquillizer gun was quickly ruled out because of the time it takes for the sedatives to work.
The tiger had managed to get on to tramlines, which led to an entire line being shut down during the Friday evening rush hour.
Terrified passengers heard the announcement: ‘A tiger is on the loose, please vacate the station’.
One witness said: ‘There were people running and screaming. It was a very big, fierce looking animal.’
The tiger was shot dead near a bridge over the River Seine, about two kilometers (1.24 miles) from the Eiffel Tower.
Initially, circus employees had tried to chase the tiger with a pole and a piece of meat. When that failed armed police shot it dead
The circus boss who shot dead his escaped tiger on the streets of Paris claimed Saturday the animal’s cage had been cut open in a ‘malicious act’
The circus, which has several tigers, had just set up and planned to open its doors to the public on December 3.
A spokesman for the circus said: ‘Without hesitation, and despite the immense pain of killing an animal born in our circus, we have taken our responsibilities. A terribly painful but necessary gesture for Eric Bormann, who managed to neutralize the animal in ten minutes.
‘The love of animals is the heart of our profession, and for eight generations the circus has existed and 40 years since we settled in Paris.
‘Their well-being has always been central to our concerns. It is with passion that we work every day with them, that we see them born, baby bottles, and that we live in everyday life with them. Respect for the animals and the safety of our viewers have always been our engines.’
They added: ‘Attacks by some animal rights associations are now hurtful to our family. Our nine tigers were all born in the circus. We offer them a quality of care that we are proud of, while the tiger is an endangered species in the wild.’
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation – named after the actress and animal rights activist – said it was ‘scandalised by the slaughter of the tiger’ and called on the government to ban the exploitation of animals in circuses.
Circuses in England were banned from using wild animals in their shows from December 2015 and a two-year ‘grace period’ for owners to get rid of them is now coming to an end.
Until recently, some 20 licensed animals were still working in circuses, including camels, zebras and snakes.
However, there have been no big cats, elephants, zebras, snakes, monkeys, gorillas or chimpanzees working in English circuses for years.