I'm on a number of mailing lists for Las Vegas news and others for magicians. In the last hour, I received a Vegas News bulletin that said it "doesn't look good" for Roy Horn, who was mauled by a tiger last night, and a Magic News bulletin that says he'll pull through. Naturally, we hope the latter is the case.
But I have a feeling that either way, this incident is going to have impact, above and beyond the question of whether half of "Siegfried and Roy" survives. For some time now, there's been a growing movement against performing animals. The fact that they don't have any is a major selling point for the Cirque du Soleil shows, and activists have not been unsuccessful in arguing that such acts are cruel to the animals and dangerous to humans. Now, they have a powerful debate point to emphasize the latter: Roy was as qualified as anyone alive in the handling of "big cats," more qualified than many. If he couldn't control that tiger, then the danger is probably greater than previously imagined…and not just to the trainer but to the audience, as well. Groups like P.E.T.A. have gone after circuses, especially the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey operation, which is also involved in the Siegfried and Roy show in Vegas. It will be interesting to see how the animal rights groups use this new, tragic development. It will also be interesting to see how the circuses deflect (and probably try to head off) criticism.
For myself: I am utterly conflicted on the subject. I love animals, as evidenced by the vast legions of them I feed in my backyard. But I eat meat and direct my charitable donations towards groups that help human beings, not wildlife. I've stopped buying leather (but still have it all over my home and car) because I decided synthetic fabrics were just as good for my purposes. I once did a TV series that booked a lot of animal acts and my observation was that the animals were generally treated pretty well.
So I honestly don't know what to think. I can see both sides of the issue. And I have a feeling we're all about to hear a lot more from both sides.