iStockphoto / wrangel
The Christopher Columbus High School senior prom was held last Friday night at a hotel near the Miami International Airport and the ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ theme featured a special guest: a grown ass tiger.
Footage of the tiger being wheeled into prom inside of a cage has been making the rounds. Reactions online range from people claiming animal cruelty to others questioning why anyone would ever bring an apex predator into a loud ass school dance to others thinking it’s absolutely awesome.
and
The tiger was part of an ensemble of animals that were captured on video. The footage showed the tiger, birds, a lemur, two macaws and an African fennec fox taking center stage at the event.
Afterward, the school stated that the wildlife was overseen the whole time by a Florida-licensed facility.
The school also released a statement to ABC station Local 10 defending the wild animal entertainment.
“The tiger, which was displayed for a few minutes in a cage, was never harmed or in danger, was not forced to perform, was always accompanied by his handlers, and for the great majority of the time, was laying down in a relaxed state, facing away from the audience,” it read. (via)
This sounds infinitely more awesome than my prom, which I barely remember because I’d recently had knee surgery for a torn meniscus and was all hopped up on pain meds. At least if we’d had a tiger show up at my prom I probably would’ve remembered it.
For more on this story, you can visit ABC News’s website.