CAT on the loose in FL

[Shaun]

Got this off FOX

Tiger Eludes Capture in Florida

Tuesday, July 13, 2004



LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — A 600-pound tiger eluded capture for a second day Tuesday after escaping from the compound of its owner, a former actor who once played Tarzan.

Sheriff's deputies and state game officials set up a perimeter around a 5-acre area of dense slash pines and palm trees, and started beating the bush again at daybreak, said Willie Puz, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Wildlife trackers, joined by the cat's owner, Steve Sipek, felt confident they were closing in on the cat, named Bobo, after finding fresh paw prints. They planned to shoot the 6-year-old tiger with tranquilizers but carried shotguns just in case.

Sipek was "very distraught over the whole situation. He feels confident that if he spots the tiger he may be able to talk him into coming to him in a peaceful way," said Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The tiger was spotted several times, including by a woman who said it was in her back yard. Officials hoped Bobo would simply grow hungry and return home in search of food, Puz said.

Bobo was reported missing Monday afternoon from the home of Sipek, who played Tarzan decades ago under the screen name Steve Hawkes, said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Sipek has raised the tiger since it was a cub.

When the first deputies arrived Monday, the cat jumped on top of their car, Miller said. Puz said searchers spotted it several times Monday evening but were never close enough to shoot it with tranquilizer darts.

Officers were available to escort nervous residents to their homes or away from the area, Puz said. Officials encouraged people to "go about their normal business" and to call 911 if they spotted the cat.

"The tiger has only roamed about 200 yards from its home, which means it's not out free-roaming all over," he said.

Sipek has another tiger, two lions, a black leopard and a cougar on his property, the Palm Beach Post reported. The cats, mostly castoffs from zoos, are usually kept in a mazelike series of interlocking cages.

In February 2002, a 750-pound tiger bit a woman on the head while she helped Sipek during a photo shoot at his compound.

In 1985, a tame, three-legged black leopard belonging to Sipek eluded searchers for nearly three days before being found wandering near a fence on his property.

Sipek said at the time that he had been devoted to the big cats ever since one pulled him from a fire during the filming of a Tarzan movie.

According to the Internet Movie Data Base, "Steve Hawkes" played Tarzan in a series of Spanish-language Tarzan movies around 1970 and was called Zan of the Jungle when they were released in English. He retired from acting after an on-set accident, it said.

His property is about 15 miles west of Palm Beach. It is bordered by other similar sized estates and mini-ranches, many with livestock. Canals and wooded areas and scrubby brush surround homes that sit on five-acre lots off dirt roads. Lion County Safari and the swampy Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge are a few miles away.

[Despoiler]

They killed it.

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Yeah, too bad. The third world state of Florida is full of dems and undesirables. I wish the cat could have had a good meal before being killed.

[Shaun]

Too bad to hear but thats what happens when you bring a wild cat inside the public area trying to domesticate it.