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Tiger tamer gives thumbs-up
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Roy Horn, half of the Las Vegas duo Siegfried & Roy, was able to move his hands, feet, and give a "thumbs-up" signal Monday, hospital officials said, three days after being mauled by one of his tigers during a show. University Medical Center officials said 59-year-old Horn was still in critical condition. He suffered massive blood loss in the incident, the officials said, and also had a stroke after the mauling. The accident happened Friday night about halfway through Siegfried & Roy's show at the MGM Mirage Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip. Denise Previti, who was watching the show as part of her honeymoon trip, said Horn introduced a 7-year-old white tiger named Montecore to the audience, and then let go of the animal's leash. The tiger started to head offstage, Previti told CNN's Anderson Cooper, and Horn tried to direct it back to center stage. "You could tell it didn't want to go, so he had the leash, he was trying to get it to sit and face the audience, and he had his arm out in front of him," she said. "The tiger bit his arm, [and] he's hitting the nose of [the] tiger with the microphone, trying to get it off," she said. "After that it's kind of a blur, but it seemed like he almost sat down or leaned back gradually, and then the tiger bit his neck [and] shoulder area and dragged him offstage." No one in the audience screamed, Previti said, and no one knew whether it was part of the show. (CNN Access) "I thought it was part of the act," Andrew Cushman, who was also in the audience, said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "No one moved, no one ran, no one screamed, everyone thought it was part of the act." Other audience members said Horn looked like a rag doll in the tiger's mouth. Crew members backstage sprayed a fire extinguisher at the cat to force him to release his grip, a tactic they are trained to use in such an event, Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said. Ed Maruska, director emeritus of the Cincinnati Zoo, theorized that something had upset the animal. "It could have been a subtle change in the routine of the animal," Maruska told Cooper. "Wild animals are wild animals" and they're unpredictable, he said. Horn, whose birthday was Friday, is the dark-haired member of Siegfried & Roy. Combining magic tricks with tiger stunts, Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher have performed as a duo on the Las Vegas strip for nearly 30 years. The tiger is in quarantine in accordance with state law, Feldman said, and a decision on what to do with the animal won't be made until more is known about Horn's condition. CNN correspondent Jeff Flock contributed to this report.
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