BERLIN CENTER Tiger placed in local sanctuary

The tiger will be quarantined before meeting the sanctuary's other 45 cats.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
BERLIN CENTER -- Ming, a tiger taken from a Manhattan apartment after biting its owner, will have to get used to grass, trees and birds at its new home here, its director said.
Dr. Alvin Burger, a Canton veterinarian, was to examine the tiger today at Noah's Lost Ark, 8424 Bedell Road. The vet will examine Ming through the bars of a transfer cage rather than sedate it again, center director Ellen Whitehouse said.
The licensed facility takes abused and neglected exotic animals and warns that wild animals can't be tamed.
Whitehouse said Ming arrived late Sunday night, "very scared, very upset" in a transport cage. "He's terribly frightened; he doesn't understand. He's never been outside. He never heard lions and tigers roar before."
The tiger's head is large, compared to his body, showing that he didn't have the ability to exercise and lacks muscle tone, Whitehouse said.
"We should just stop letting people buy them," Whitehouse said. "We shouldn't be breeding them in the United States."
Necessary funds
She said it's ridiculous for someone to think they could keep and tame an animal that size in an apartment.
Funds are needed to build an enclosure to house Ming, the 46th big cat at Noah's Lost Ark, Whitehouse said. Donations are tax deductible.
Whitehouse said the big cats require about 425 pounds of meat each day. Food for all the animals is paid for through donations and admissions.
When asked to comment about the mauling of Las Vegas entertainer Roy Horn, Whitehouse said she wishes him well -- then noted what happened shows that wild animals are unpredictable. Siegfried & amp; Roy have performed with big cats in Las Vegas for more than 30 years.
An alligator also in the New York apartment, meanwhile, was to be sent to an Indiana preserve.
Their owner is recovering from wounds from the 20-month-old, 425-pound cat.
Police said Antoine Yates, 31, would face reckless endangerment charges after he gets out of a hospital in Philadelphia, where he fled. He was listed in good condition.
Yates said the tiger grabbed him and "tore open my whole leg down to the bone." Yates told Philadelphia TV station KYW in a phone interview from his hospital bed that he was "trying to create a Garden of Eden, something that this world lacks."
Safe haven
A team of animal control officers, police and Bronx Zoo workers used a camera to track the animals in Yates' fifth-floor apartment in a Harlem housing project before tranquilizing and removing them Saturday.
Wes Artope, director of the city's animal shelters, said the tiger, an orange and white Siberian-Bengal mix, had been kept in the apartment since he was a 6-week-old cub.
The tiger and 5-foot alligator, both in good condition, were taken first to a local shelter, then to a Long Island animal sanctuary before authorities sought homes for them.
Noah's Lost Ark, an all-volunteer organization, currently has about 125 exotic animals. The safe haven is open to the public on weekends from May 1 through Oct. 31.
The sanctuary isn't equipped for reptiles, Whitehouse said. Lorain County animal trainer and rescuer Sam Mazzola, who transported the animals, said he would take the alligator to a sanctuary in Indiana this week.
The tiger will be quarantined in his own outdoor enclosure for 30 to 45 days -- with 50-gallon plastic drums from a nearby butter factory as toys -- before any attempts to introduce him to the sanctuary's other 45 big cats.
Yates was taken into custody Saturday night at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, police said.