Roy Horn and Siegfried Fishbacher have performed around 5,700shows since they began at the Mirage in Las Vegas over ten yearsago. The signature of their magic show has been their whitetigers and lions.
Six shows a week, 44 weeks a year they worked with their bigcats on stage, and not once has there been an incident. In fact,according to reports, Montecore nipped at Roy’s arm earlier inthe show before carrying him off stage and seriously injuringhim, without leaving any bite marks.
Which is more than I can say about Baby Kittee here at my ownhouse.
I know all about Baby Kittee's speed and teeth. She is, to quotethe poet William Blake, “red in tooth and claw.” As I vacuumaround the house, I find wings, scales, tails and other remnantsof her nature. Her name was chosen by my granddaughter. It mightas well have been “Grownup Killer.” Cats are always onegeneration away from feral; they do not permanently domesticate,like the dog.
Now did you catch that 6 shows a week? According to Horn’ssurgeon, Dr. Derek Duke, “A contributing factor to [Roy’s]current condition is his extraordinary will and strong physicalattributes. These are significant elements in his ability torecover.” Indeed his “thumbs-up” signal to his partner has beenmentioned by reporters. We are told that as he was carried away,he asked that the cat not be put down. “Please don’t shoot thecat,” he said. “Save the cat.”
It was Roy Horn’s 59th birthday (October 23, 2003) when he wasperforming on stage with the 7-year-old, 600 pound Royal whitetiger, Montecore, that the cat injured him.
Reports from the shocked observers varied, but the consensus,now that some time has passed, is that the tiger becamefascinated with a woman’s “big hair” in the audience, even tothe point of lying down on the job, at which point Roy boppedhim to get his attention.
Roy then endeavored to stay between the cat and the woman(what’s with the “big hair”?) and it was at this point he fell,stage hands rushed forward, and Montecore took action. Accordingto the head of the Mirage (Mr. Wynne), he didn’t “drag” Royoffstage, nor did he “attack” or “grab” him. Siegfried and otherbig cat experts agree that if Montecore had meant to do the job,he would have shaken him to break his neck, and, as Siegfriedsaid, “There would be no Roy.”
Instead Wynn describes it as a gentle “carry,” like a mother catcarrying her kitten off to safety. It is entirely possibleMontecore was heading back to his cage and taking what he caredabout with him. In interviews, Roy talks continually of hisbonding with his cats. He is present at their birth, and keepsconstant company with them. We know that bonding can occurbetween all mammals because of the limbic brain we share incommon. It is how we bond to our own young, and to one another,as do dogs, cats, horses, and other mammals.
In my Emotional Intelligence courses, I use the example of “thetiger within.” It’s how we describe those primitive brainemotions or reactions that occur automatically, that have to dowith fear, aggression and self-preservation. Psychologists callit the 3F reaction – fight, flight, or fornicate. And that’sabout the only decision reptiles, and lower animals ever have tomake. They react to their environment in terms of what it can doto them or for them, they don’t bond with their young (in factwill eat them), and they never learn anything new their entirelifespan. You can’t train an alligator.
We retain this brain. To this we added the mammalian brain, thelimbic brain, what makes us care for our young, bond, be able toempathize, communicate and play … and why when we look into theeyes of one another, or another mammal, we see soul, a sentientbeing. It initiates mutual caring. If that frog in the examplewere actually in the boiling water calling out, would it tear atyour heart the way a baby’s cry does, or the wailing of your dogwhen you leave in the morning??
To this, we evolved the neocortex, the crowning glory of thehomo sapiens. Or is it? Magnificent as it may be, it has itslimitations. The lower brain will always rule, emotions willalways take precedence, because they’re necessary for survival.When we fear – and in today’s world our fear can be totallysymbolic (your boss yelling at you) – we get “hijacked.” We are“flooded” with emotion which is specifically designed to shutdown our “thinking” (our ability to reason) and we act, i.e., weact without thinking. We are constantly at risk of the tigerwithin us becoming confused and primitive, like Montecore, anddoing something we would not ordinarily do.
Montecore has been performing for many years. Something wentawry, something was different, and he reverted toself-preservation tactics, by all reports. In the fight orflight, he decided not to attack anyone, but to get himself andRoy to safety. If he attacked Roy, the same principle appliesand we will never really know.
Something emotional happened, and among mammals, emotions arecontagious. You know this if you’ve been in a newspaper officethe day they announced it was closing, or been around whensomeone got chastised in public. Was it something with Roy, thesame thing that caused this magnificent physical specimen toslip and fall? His birthday? Wondering, as I do, why thefascination with the “big hair.” (How many friends of mine havetold me their cats love to lick hair-sprayed hair… or did itlook like “fur” to Montecore?) Was he overly tired and less ableto concentrate – having celebrated his birthday, or being aboutto? Was he preoccupied with thoughts of the Big 6-0 on thehorizon?
When Roy fell, it was something Montecore had never seen happenon stage before. If he was bonded with Roy, he may have fearedfor Roy, who knows. But it was change – big change – that thingthat throws all of us.
Then the stage hands rushed out, more commotion … fear. Onereverts. Bad things can happen. We can hurt people we love. Wecan hurt ourselves. Prey as we are to the beast within, all wecan do is be aware, and to learn to manage. This is EmotionalIntelligence. And this, Roy understood about his beloved tiger.It wasn’t Montecore’s “fault”…nor do we routinely “blame”animals, lacking a neocortex as they do.
However, in regards to humans, we continue to battle this out inthe courts, and in our own hearts and minds.
It is for sure we never want to hear ourselves say, “I didn’tmean to kill her, I love her,” or “I don’t know what came overme,” or “That wasn’t like me.” We are as capable of as seriousinjury to others as Montecore is, physically, and alsoemotionally, because we have words, and when we disable ourneocortex, we are left with the same equipment Montecore has.
Our prayers are for all concerned, including the show’s workers,described as “family,” who must also cope with possibly losingtheir jobs, another EQ dilemma. Because we are humans, ourbrains are often at odds with one another and we sufferconflict, guilt and shame. As one worker said in a newspaperquote, it was awful to be worrying about herself at that time,but she was a single mother and it was her job. Let us say themeans of preservation for herself and her children. We need tokeep learning about our emotions. As Childre and Martin say,“The emotional frontier is truly the next frontier to conquer inhuman understanding. The opportunity we face now … is to developour emotional potential and accelerate rather dramatically intoa new state of being.”
Photo of Roy with baby white tiger:http://www.siegfriedandroy.com/news/images/sprint_commercial.jpg
“Look for the magic that is around you in nature, flowers, andall the animals that share this planet with us.” Roy Horn
About the author:©Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, cEQc, The EQ Coach™,http://www.susandunn.cc . Emotional coaching to positivelyimpact all areas of your life – career, relationships,transition, learning, leadership, resilience, self- andother-management. Take The EQ Foundation Course©, and visit theeBook Learning Center:http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html .Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE eZine.
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
Additional Resources
Can Bamboo Flooring Really Help Save The Worlds' Environment?
By S.A. Smith, Fri Dec 9th
Probably not on its own, but its an excellent example of howconsumers can vote with their buying dollars to sway marketdemand to bring more environmentally friendly products into Read more...
|
Additional Resources
Global Warming: Why Consumers And Insurers Are Getting Hot Under The Collar Over Life Insurance
By Rachel Lane
The recent terrorism attacks in London brought home the fragility of human life to many Brits, who had previously been able to distance themselves from terrorist activity. For the partners Read more...
|
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if
there is a specific topic related to climate change that you would
like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to
our climate change website.
Schools to Help Needy Students]]>
Even if people stopped pumping out carbon dioxide and other pollutants tomorrow, global warming would get worse, two teams of researchers reported yesterday.]]>
A sampling of noteworthy presentations yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, taking place in Washington this weekend.]]>
All college freshmen who live in dorms should be vaccinated for meningitis, a government panel recommended yesterday, reversing policy of the past. The panel is also advising doctors to give the shot to all 11- and 12-year-old children and recommending that it be provided to at least 4 million children eligible under the federal children's vaccine program.]]>
