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The Perfect Pet Tiger

© Joy Butler

Never drugged, never beaten, not once caged, and obviously not defanged or declawed, Bill Frazer's 500 pound Siberian tiger made more than 11,000 public appearances for over 3 million people. From corporate functions, marketing events, wedding receptions, birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, and parades, to universities, schools, and even daycares, Qadesh, whose name means 'goddess of love', greeted thousands of people with a cheek rub. Her tenderness touched the lives of many and, in sixteen years on earth, she helped to educate the public about endangered species and motivate people to be more tolerant of all life forms.

Tigers possess the crushing strength to exert 6000 lbs of pressure per square inch with their jaws, yet will carry a newborn cub for miles without leaving a bruise. Their instinct is for survival and they learn from their mother, while romping and wrestling as babies, how to appropriately use their strength. Just as a small puppy learns when to crush bones and when to have a "soft mouth", they learn what is and is not proper behavior for a tiger.

Qadesh was bottle-fed and grew up in the constant company of humans - traveling, eating, sleeping, and, yes, roughhousing for hours each day with Bill and his family. In the wild she would have learned, from her mother, how to attack for food and how to fight to defend her territory, and all the best ways to interact in that environment. In her urban setting, Qadesh learned, much as she would have in the wild, by experiencing every conceivable situation and then, by positive reinforcement of love and affection or negative reinforcement of stern scolding, how to react in each situation. Her great intelligence allowed her to adjust and learn the ways of an urban environment. In short, she was highly socialized and learned, from infancy, what was and was not proper social behavior.

But can you really trust a wild animal? Mr. Frazer believes that animals are more predictable than most humans but that most people do not know animals intimately enough to be able to predict their behavior or are simply unwilling to make the effort to consider a given situation from the animal's point of view.

In sixteen years of meeting thousands of people in all kinds of settings, Qadesh never attacked anyone or even so much as displayed antisocial behavior. Of this her owner says, "My confidence remained sufficient that I allowed my only child - just turned nine this July - to sleep with her and I, and share our home with her all day, every day; and because my ex-wife and I divorced seven years ago, I also had to satisfy the Family Courts and the Children's Aid Society as to the safety of such an environment."