LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. -- A movie actor who once played Tarzan criticized authorities for killing a tiger that escaped from his home, saying the animal had a "heart of gold."
The 6-year-old tiger was shot and killed Tuesday when it lunged at a wildlife officer who was trying to capture it.
Steve Sipek, who developed a soft spot for jungle beasts while playing Tarzan in Spanish-language B-movies in the early 1970s, said he doubted the tiger had to be killed.
He said he would have been able to coax the tiger, named Bobo, if officers had called him to the scene before shooting it.
"Murder is the word," Sipek said. "They murdered a poor, helpless animal that only looked ferocious, as any tiger would, but Bobo had a heart of gold."
On the CBS's "The Early Show" Wednesday, Sipek also said someone must have let the tiger out of his cage and opened several gates that separated the cats from the 12-foot walls surrounding his property. The cat could not have escaped on his own, Sipek said.
A dozen wildlife trackers and sheriff's deputies had searched more than 24 hours for the animal, which escaped Monday. They had kept watch Tuesday in a five-acre area of dense slash pines and palm trees, hoping to catch it.
Officers approached the tiger intending to shoot it with tranquilizers. But the tiger jumped at one officer, who shot it with a shotgun in self-defense, said Jorge Pino, a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
"Needless to say, the owner is very distraught. We're distraught," Pino said. "Our concern was to recover this tiger alive and well."
Some nearby residents, who moved to the rural area so they could have room for their own pets, were less sympathetic.
"What I want to know is when he was in captivity, how long did he go without a feeding?" said Kim Smith, who has horses and dogs that she normally keeps outside.
"Tigers are predatorial. All of us moved out here because we're city people wanting a taste of the country. But this is a little funky."
Wildlife officials had said they did not believe the declawed pet would attack. He was never taught to hunt, and had never killed anything or lived in the wild. However, he did bite a woman working inside his cage two years ago, severely injuring her.
An expert on tiger behavior disagreed that Bobo had posed no danger.
"Tigers are wild animals and they retain hard-wired instincts. And to say just because a tiger doesn't have his claws - so what? He still has his teeth and they're powerful," said Ron Tilson, conservation director at the Minnesota Zoo.
Sipek told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday that wildlife officials had told him they wouldn't try to capture Bobo until later in the evening, so he went to take a shower. He said he was coming back to rejoin the search when he heard five shots and "my heart sank."
"I kept my word, except I failed yesterday, trusting people," he said. He said wildlife officials were laughing after the shooting.
"It was a glorified thing for them," he said.
Sipek's compound sits about 10 miles from West Palm Beach, just off a main east-west thoroughfare. Sipek has another tiger, a panther, a cougar and lions on his five-acre compound, which is marked by a sign that reads, "Trespassers will be eaten."
"He never should have had these animals in the first place," said Andrea Newell, who grew up two doors away and was visiting family on Tuesday.
The tiger's escape and the shooting were under investigation, officials said.
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.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
