Mike Tyson Reveals Regret Over Keeping Tigers As Pets

Mike Tyson, who owns three pet Tigers revealed his regret over owning them as pets admitting it was “foolish, they’d kill you”. The white Bengal tigers, which reportedly cost £48,000 each, became a part of Tyson’s character.

In a report by Sky News, he told American rapper Fat Joe that owning the pet cats was naive because of how dangerous they were as the two discussed the new Netflix documentary ‘Tiger King’, Tyson said on Instagram live:

I was foolish. There’s no way you can domesticate these cats 100 percent. There’s no way that’s going to happen. They’ll kill you by accident, especially when you’re playing rough with them, you’re punching them back. They get hyped up, hit you back and you’re dead. I’m just happy I educated myself. I was doing the wrong s***. I shouldn’t have had them in my house, believing they were domesticated. I was wrong.

Speaking further on the Instagram Live, he said:

Somebody jumped over my fence where the tiger was and started playing with the tiger. The tiger didn’t know the lady so it was a bad accident. She jumped into the property where the tiger was. They tried to [sue] until they found out she jumped over the fence and she trespassed with the tiger. When I saw what the tiger did to her hand, I had a lot of money back then, so I gave her $250,000 (£200,000) whatever it was because she was just f***** up.

Tyson decided to buy the pets after a conversation with a car dealer during his three-year prison sentence, for a 1992 sexual assault conviction. He exchanged some of his cars to get the pets.