News broke yesterday that Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn of the famed Las Vegas duo “Siegfried and Roy” welcomed five tiger cubs into their Tiger Habitat at The Mirage Hotel. Siegfried claims he thought the cubs would prove therapeutic for his German counterpart and longtime lover Roy Horn, who was critically paralyzed after one of his tigers attacked him onstage.

This news—an apparent effort to garner the media’s attention—comes just two weeks after the June 1st release of the scandalous unauthorized biography The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy. The book was written by key members of Siegfried and Roy’s team, including Louis Mydlach who was aide to Horn after his brutal attack. Jim Mydlach, another of the co-authors and the former head of Siegfried and Roy’s security team, says the duo “will do anything to make themselves look good right now…. Don’t forget—they are the Masters of Illusion.”

In the AP article centered on the new cubs, Siegfried said, “Our life is a purpose. Our purpose is to keep them [the tigers] from extinction.” His remarks follow PETA’s statement last week on the magic duo’s treatment of animals. The animal protection group claims “the duo’s cavalier portrayal of 600-pound tigers as cuddly cats fueled the exotic pet trade by inspiring others to acquire dangerous wild animals to the point where there’s now an estimated 15,000 big cats in private hands in the U.S., many pacing neurotically in flimsy backyard cages.”

The duo did not say where their newest cubs came from, but in The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy it is revealed that many of their wild animals were bought from a Japanese animal dealership which kept its lions and tigers—advertised as being of the “exotic white” variety—locked up in prison-like cells. Jimmy Lavery, who worked closely with Siegfried and Roy and is the third co-author of the book, questioned the cubs’ origins noting, “they do not appear to have been born in the Habitat, which is suspicious…Makes me wonder where they’re really from.” Siegfried and Roy have not made that information available. There have been no animal births at the Tiger Habitat since October of 2003 save a single litter of leopards, born shortly after Roy Horn’s tragic mauling.

The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy: How the Tiger Kings Tamed Las Vegas is for sale in bookstores and on Amazon.com. For more information, please visit www.phoenixbooksandaudio.com.
or contact - Karen Ammond- KBC MEDIA
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