Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?

Subject: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 01:52 PM

Well, I would't want him for a neighbour, but I can't help admiring the optimistic dedication of this nut. Anyone feel like writing a song about it? (Apparently he told the hospital they were dog bites...):

Tiger taken from flat in New York

Reuters in New York
Monday October 6, 2003
The Guardian

Police and animal control officers removed a tiger and an alligator from a New York apartment after they were tipped off by neighbours.

Officials found the animals on Saturday in the home of 31-year-old Antoine Yates, who faces charges of reckless endangerment. A police sharpshooter fired a tranquilliser dart through the window of the fifth-floor flat to subdue the tiger, which weighed up to 225kg (500lb), according to a police spokesman.

Along with the tiger, believed to be a Siberian-Bengal mix, police found a metre-long (3ft) alligator.

Mr Yates was not on the premises when officers abseiled down the side of his building in their urban safari mission, but he was found at a Philadelphia hospital on Saturday night - receiving treatment for animal bites.

Philadelphia police were sent to make sure he did not leave the hospital until New York officers reached him to bring him back to Manhattan, a Philadelphia police spokesman said yesterday.

The animals were taken to an animal shelter and will eventually be sent to a zoo in Ohio.

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 03:50 PM

And here's a report with some pictures, including a video of the tiger, "Ming", in his flat. Antoine apparently got bitten stopping him going for a pet kitten he'd brought home - all cats do tend to get jealous when you do that.

"Defense lawyer Raymond Colon said his client lied to hospital doctors in New York, saying he had been bitten by a pit bull, because he feared authorities would destroy his tiger.

'There was no criminal intent here, and he tried as much as possible not to be reckless,' Colon said."

Antoine really does sound more and more like Hagrid from Harry Potter - apparently he used to have a lion. He's quoted as saying he was "trying to create a Garden of Eden, something that this world lacks."

Another of those "only in America" stories - not as crazy as the news about Arnie in California, of course, but definitely pretty weird.

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 03:52 PM

what amazes me is that the tiger is reported as being in excellent health - and the apartment is listed as being 700 sq. ft. incredible that the man was able to keep the tiger in good shape in that little space.

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 04:37 PM

Looks pretty healthy in those photos, true enough. I've heard of people keeping lins and such in sheds at the bottom of the garden, and I've no regard for such people - but this bloke is maybe a bit different, sharing his flat and life with Ming.

It'll make the basis of a great film, I reckon. Lassie Comes Home with a Tiger...

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 07:08 PM

No songs? Here's one for a start:

There is a Tiger grows in Harlem
A Tiger noone knows in Harlem
He is a special one, he's never seen the sun
He only comes out when the moon is on the run
And all his teeth are gleaming
He lives high above the street, sleeps there beside my feet
But soft and sweet and dreamin'

There is a Tiger grows in Harlem
A Tiger noone knows in Harlem
With eyes as black as coal that look down in my soul
And starts a fire there - and if he should lose control
I'll have to beg your pardon.

I've got this special cat,
he lives here in my flat he's always guarding
I've got this special cat,
he lives here in my flat he's always guarding
La-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la-la
(There is a Tiger grows in Harlem)
La-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la-la
(There is a Tiger grows in Harlem)

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 08:31 AM

Imagine if a burglar had decided to visit--What a schock!!

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 09:11 AM

Tiger, tiger, roaming 'round
Storeys five above the ground.
What unstable personal - itty
Brought you to live in New York City?

What aroused your wrath and ire?
Did confinement make you tire,
Of Antoine's quips like "See you later!"
Directed at the alligator...?

They say that "Ming"'s your given name,
But that was just to spare your shame,
I know just why you lost the plot,
With mad Antoine.. he called you "Spot"!

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 12:51 PM

Back before WW2 a young woman in southern California somehow got custody of a lion cub and raised it at home. There's some wonderful old newsreel footage of her lion riding in a rumble seat, sitting beside a lamb, and wrestling with his keeper. But, no matter how attached a wild animal may be to the person who raises it, it will mature and become independent, a slave to it's reflexes and hormones. And, in the case of a lion, very dangerous. He lived out his life in a southern California zoo. After a few years, he no longer seemed to recognbize his old friend.

Mr. Yates is lucky he was caught. Had his tiger killed him, it would certainly have been put down.

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 01:17 PM

I know, though it's hardly fair - that's apparently why, when he went to the hospital, Antoine pretended he'd been bitten by a dog.

I wonder what hapened to the kitten?

They say that "Ming"'s your given name,
But that was just to spare your shame,
I know just why you lost the plot,
With mad Antoine.. he called you "Spot"!

I liked that.

Subject: RE: Hagrid in NY? Song Challenge?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 07:23 PM

I suspect it's not so much irradicable killer instincts and all that, it's morevtyat a full grown big-cat is so hige and strong. I mean, the gentlest and most friendly cat is liable to get irritated from time to time, like anyone else. But what would be a barely noticeable scratch from a domestic cat, from a tiger means you're in little pieces.