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A Tiger Hangs Out In Queens
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 2, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 2, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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NYers have a rep (well-deserved in most cases) for being blase and nonchalant about bizarre occurences that happen in city life (except for seeing naked people in the apartment across the way - that's always cause for a phone call to a friend) because that just the way it is. Except when it comes to tigers roaming city streets. That's why an escaped tiger escaped tiger stopped traffic in Queens. The 450 pound white tiger, Apollo, some how got loose from the Cole Bros. Circus in Forest Park, Queens, and wandered around. The NY Times detailed his journey:
The cat took the Myrtle Avenue entrance ramp to the Jackie Robinson, where he loped along before cutting through some woods and followed a path up to a hole in a chain-link fence on 88th Lane near Myrtle Avenue.
Not that Gothamist would have wanted a terrible accident or someone to have gotten hurt, but it would have been pretty amazing if this happened during the morning commute and the traffic reporters had to report that. Apollo's trainers helped subdue him and the NYPD and Parks department helped get him into a cage by cordoning off the road. One onlooker told the Post, "He was just lying in the bushes. He looked exhausted." Yes, NYC traffic can do that to a soul. The Cole Bros. Circus was slapped with a health code summons (that's it?) and tigers weren't part of yesterday's Cole Bros. Circus performance, as the circus tries to figure out how Apollo escaped. One 6 year-old circus goer told the Daily News, "It's corny if they have no tigers." Word. Of course, this incident is giving NY State Senator Carl Kruger even more reason to ban the Cole Bros. Circus, what compounded with the flying cat "cruelty" finding earlier.
Gothamist imagines that Apollo was trying to get the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria, or perhaps the new Lee Bontecou exhibit at the MoMA Queens. We wonder what would have happened if Ming the tiger had escaped his Harlem apartment - a trip to Sylvia's, perhaps?
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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