PHOTO: Ryan Pfeiffer / Metroland file photo
Renowned animal trainer Michael Hackenberger has come under fire after being caught on camera savagely beating a tiger.
Hackenberger, the man who supplied the tiger used in the Oscar-winning film Life of Pi and also trained the animals used in last year's James Franco film The Interview can be seen hitting a tiger in the face repeatedly during a training session.
In a video released by Animal rights organisation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the owner of Bowmanville Zoological Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, can be heard telling the person recording the video, “If … we’d been running a videotape … of the times I struck this animal … PETA would burn this place to the ground.”
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Turns out, the person recording the video did in fact share it with PETA.
Further, Hackenberger is heard saying, “I like hitting [the tiger] in the face. And the paws … being on the rock, when you hit him, it’s like a vice.”
The animal rights organisation wrote in a statement that the video shows Hackenberger “savagely beating a young Siberian tiger up to 20 times on the face and body with a whip.”
“PETA’s new video footage confirms that this is a pattern of behaviour Hackenberger has towards animals, and that when he’s out of the public eye, these outbursts can be accompanied by whippings,” PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet said in a statement.
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“You should no more whip a young tiger than a young child—it's out of line and, we believe, outside the law,” Peet added.
PETA further revealed that “viewers got a taste of the anger Michael Hackenberger feels towards animals when he swore at this baboon who fell off a pony during a live television stunt.”
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Hackenberger also faced severe criticism in August when he swore at this baboon who fell off a pony during a live television stunt. He later apologised for the offensive language.
The trainer of the tiger for Life of Pi is yet to respond to the latest video.
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