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Tiger owner says he sought animal haven
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York man who kept a 400-pound tiger and 280-pound alligator as pets in his apartment said Monday that he was trying to create a sanctuary for the animals and that he had not put others at risk. Antoine Yates, 31, said he was close to buying land where the animals could roam freely when authorities discovered them in his fifth-floor housing project apartment in Harlem and removed them. "My main thing and duty was to create a paradise, you know, a haven for us as people, animals and plants," he told CNN's "American Morning." Yates could face up to seven years in prison if convicted of the felony charge of reckless endangerment and two counts of possession of a wild animal he faces. Free on his own recognizance, he is scheduled to appear in court December 18. Yates said he took the 3-month-old Bengal tiger cub he called Ming into his apartment two years ago and created a "playpen" in one of his bedrooms. The two bonded as the animal grew, and they often slept together, Yates said. "We cuddled," he said. Yates said he came to trust the animal more than he did people. "I really put my trust in that animal because there [are] times I put my trust in people and I got disappointed," he said. "But I had 100 percent trust in him."
Nevertheless, Yates' plan began to unravel after a bite from Ming. On October 1, Yates sought treatment at Harlem Hospital for a bite that he told doctors had been caused by a pit bull. But a tip that a wild animal was in Yates' apartment led police to investigate and discover his menagerie, and the animals were taken to shelters. Asked about the bite, Yates said, "It was more of an accident. It was more of a frustration. Like, it wasn't an attack or anything." Though his leg and arm still hurt, "the main injury is in my heart," he said. Yates' attorney, Raymond Colon, predicted anyone reviewing the case would conclude the animal "was at no time a danger to the public or anybody else in the [New York City] Housing Authority." "And if he was, then certainly you would think that neighbors and tenants would have alerted the authorities or the Housing Authority would have known about it," Colon said. "Mr. Yates took such meticulous care and was so careful to control the tiger's behavior and environment that no one was injured other than himself when his kitty ran out from behind him and the instincts of the tiger kicked in." Yates said that insufficient funds kept him from putting the animal in a more fitting place. "But that was part of my journey," he said. "I mean, that was my essence of what I was trying to create -- a paradise."
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