At the circus in Madrid, Spain, things seemed to be proceeding as scheduled for 35-year-old animal trainer Denny Gottani. Since he had years of experience in working with large cats, he was well used to the risks involved in performing beside powerful predators.
While Gottani was performing the show, the audience saw him handling a tiger. There was one of his mother among the spectators that night, and she had no notion that she was about to see something terrifying.
When Gottani tried to guide the tiger onto the platform, suddenly something went wrong; the animal then stopped reacting to his orders and in a short time turned against the trainer.
The tiger charged at Gottani in front of the crowd and left him struggling to get away from the animal. Soon afterwards the situation turned chaotic when another member of the circus staff rushed in and got involved.
Because of the intervention Gottani was able to escape the tiger and reach safety, but he had already sustained serious injuries and had wounds to his head, back and legs which were severe enough to necessitate hospitalization.
The situation was especially terrifying for his mother since, rather than seeing her son carry out his normal performance, she suddenly found herself watching him struggle to survive an attack from an animal that he had spent years working with.
It is not clear what caused the tiger to launch the attack. The witnesses stated that the animal had already been ignoring Gottani’s orders prior to the incident, which indicates that there might have been a problem before the attack took place.
Even though wild animals have spent many years around people, they can still act in an unpredictable manner. Dangerous behaviour can be caused by stress, by being in unfamiliar situations or by instinct, and even after many years of training these instincts cannot be entirely eliminated.
The event also reminded people of other well-known attacks involving big cats and performers, one of the most famous of which took place during a performance by Siegfried and Roy, when a white tiger seriously injured Roy Horn during a show in Las Vegas.
Examples such as these show the huge dangers associated with putting wild predators in situations where they are expected to perform for large groups of people. Regardless of how skilled the trainer is, a tiger is still a powerful wild animal and can react in ways that are not always predictable to humans.
Although Gottani survived the attack in Madrid, the injuries meant that he had to receive hospital treatment. For the audience and in particular for his mother, the performance served as a terrifying reminder of just how swiftly a circus show with wild animals can go wrong.
The situation also brings up a more general issue as to whether animals like tigers should be giving performances for entertainment. Although such shows still take place in certain places, critics maintain that wild animals should be in settings where their natural behaviours can be respected rather than on a stage in front of a crowd.
