The owner of the Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario is denying allegations of animal cruelty after a video emerged of him using a whip to control a tiger during a training session.
The video was filmed by a member of the animal rights group PETA.
The group alleged that zoo owner Michael Hackenberger “repeatedly swore at and savagely whipped a young Siberian tiger up to 20 times on the face and body. According to PETA, the tiger is seen cowering, rolling over on his back, and expressing his anal glands during the beating -- a fear response in big cats.”
PETA also claims that the video shows Hackenberger discussing his technique when striking the tiger’s paws.
“If we’d been running a videotape the whole time you were here, and we did a 45-second montage of the times I struck this animal, PETA would burn this place to the ground,” Hackenberger says in the video.
The animal rights group is calling on the Ontario SPCA to investigate and charge Hackenberger. PETA also wants the tiger confiscated from the zoo.
"PETA's eyewitness footage confirms that Michael Hackenberger uses violence and physical domination, and he needs to be stopped," PETA’s director of captive animal law enforcement Brittany Peet said in the statement. "You should no more whip a young tiger than a young child -- it's out of line and, we believe, outside the law."
The Bowmanville Zoo was quick to respond with a half-hour-long video calling PETA’s allegations “manufactured” and offering a step-by-step explanation of the actions seen in the video released by the organization.
“For too long, we have allowed PETA to interpret the actions of animals for us,” Hackenberger said in his response. “Today we’re not going to do that. We’re going to let the animals tell the story.”
Hackenberger said he only struck the tiger twice to “correct” its behaviour when it swiped at one of the trainers. The rest of the time, Hackenberger said he was only cracking the whip and striking the ground without making contact with the tiger.
“A tiger would not lay on the ground and allow itself to be struck as this videotape suggests,” Hackenberger said. “(Tigers) will turn around and they’ll try to kill you. That’s not what we’re about.”
Aside from apologizing for his “language problem” in the video, Hackenberger said he is not guilty of any wrongdoing.
“Maybe I viciously whipped the ground. Maybe I viciously whipped the air. But I did not viciously whip that tiger,” he said. “PETA, once again, is lying.”
The video response also features the tiger in question and another trainer who was present in the video released by PETA.
Hackenberger demonstrates that he was cracking the whip without hitting the tiger in a recreated training situation. The tiger does not appear to be afraid of the whip or of Hackenberger himself.
The zoo owner also accused PETA of splicing together the video in a way that made his training techniques seem cruel.
The video shows only three minutes from “at least an hour and a half of footage” from PETA’s visit to the zoo, he said.
“Three minutes out of 90, you’re not seeing. I challenge PETA to release the footage they haven’t put out.”
Hackenberger, who supplies animals for TV and film productions, including the tiger used in Life of Pi and The Interview, became the subject of much public attention when he was caught swearing at a baboon on live television in August.
OSPCA has said it is investigating PETA’s allegations but would not comment on the incident.
