Huge, hungry felines draw crowd at the fair
FRANKLIN TWP — The largest fair in Western Pennsylvania got a lot larger this year — 700 pounds larger.
Twice every day those who have attended the Big Butler Fair have had the chance to see five African tigers in Kay Rosaire's Big Cat Encounter.
The show continues at 4 and 7 p.m. today and Saturday, the last day of the nine-day fair.
Performed by Clayton Rosaire in a steel-fenced arena, the show gives the crowd an up-close look at the abilities and personalities of the five exotic animals, one of which is touted as the largest working tiger in the United States.
Rosaire said he has trained and worked with such large animals since he was a youngster.
At only 19 years old he is the youngest professional big cat handler performing today.
"I started training when I was 7 and I have been training every day of my life since then," he said. "I've also had about every accident possible."
He said the key to avoiding injuries and ensuring his safety is a combination of respect for the animals and the use of positive reinforcement with food when training.
Beside showing the tricks the animals can perform, Rosaire also mixes in a lot of facts about the tigers and some humor.
Also, although each of the five tigers had something unique to offer the performance, perhaps the star of the show was a rare white Royal Bengal Tiger with piercing blue eyes.
"White tigers are one of the rarest animals on earth," Rosaire said. "They are only born in captivity, never in the wild where they would be much too vulnerable."
"It was really neat when the white tiger was standing up for the audience," said Bruce Clark from Kittanning, who said he had never seen the animals that close before.
Others agreed that they were amazed by the tricks and poses that the animals performed for the audience, which were much different from what is typically seen in a zoo."I loved the show," said Christie Fazio of Massachusetts, who was in town visiting family. "I have never seen anything like that before. I especially liked it when they were acting like they would in the wild before a fight."When not performing, the tigers live in Florida at an exotic animal sanctuary, which is a place where rescued animals typically live.Rosaire said that many of these animals are rescued from people who wanted to have an exotic pet but could not afford to keep them.He also said that you usually don't see more than one or two of these animals at a zoo because of the expense of feeding them. Big cats weighing between 200 and 700 pounds eat at least 20 pounds of raw meat a day."We go through about 5,000 pounds of raw meat in a week," Rosaire said. "It gets very expensive."
