Results tagged “antoineyates”

New York's favorite and only admitted tiger (and alligator) haborer, Antoine Yates was in court yesterday, to seek an adjournment of the charges against him for illegally owning and sheltering a variety of animals. Yates, whose Harlem apartment turned animal farm caught attention in early October, was dressed jauntily ("wearing a bowler hat and black suit") and mentioned missing his beloved tiger Ming. He said, "It's not my leg, it's my heart," dismissing the fact that Ming bit his leg. He also told reporters, "It's hard for me to speak, because my thoughts are with Ming right now." Yates had a number of supporters with him, including State Assmblyman Keith Wright of Manhattan, who is trying to help Yates with his legal troubles and with finding a job with animals; Wright told Newsday, "Uptown, we call him Dr. Doolittle of Harlem." Aw, that's sweet, but come on, Yates is a little more than crazy. And Dr. Doolittle is a fictional character.

The "Tiger Lady" of Jackson Township, NJ, Joan Byron-Marasek, (the Garden State's precursor of Antoine Yates, Harlem resident and tiger owner) has lost the 24 tigers that would roam her 13-acre Tigers Only Preservation Society compound. After five years of battling with NJ state wildlife agency (especially after a 1999 incident where a 430 tiger found roaming NJ backwoods had to be shot; Byron-Marasek never confirmed it was hers), Byron-Marasek's tigers are going to a wild animal refuge in Texas. Byron-Marasek said about that the move was "tantamount to removing children who are happy and healthy and loved and putting them in the home of a known child abuser and rapist." Carol Asvestas, director of the Wild Animal Orphanage, told the NY Times that NJ tigers appeared to be filthy and in poor health, and that "a couple have chronic diarrhea and they obviously have intestinal parasites. The animals kept in some small chutes are covered with feces and urine — you can just smell it."

The Daily News tours the urban apartment zoo of Antoine Yates. the man behind such escapades as "these tiger-sized bite marks are from a dog" and "teaching the NYPD how to get a tiger out of a Harlem apartment." The Housing Authority has successfully evicted Yates from his five apartment (five?) and gave him time to clear out. The DN reports that it smelled like a rancid pet store. He tells the DN that he and Ming liked to watch movies (The Godfather, Carrie and The Exorcist), while Al the alligator stayed in a room that had a poster of Lil' Kim. That's what Gothamist likes in its animals: A healthy appreciation of pop culture.

Perhaps because alligators seem natural in New York (who hasn't wondered if there was an alligator in the sewer beneth their feet), Ming the Tiger, the illegal Harlem resident, got all the media attention, whereas Al the Alligator got very little love. The Times ponders this issue as well as what has happened with Al since being kicked out of the squat. James Doherty, the general curator of the Bronx Zoo, says that the alligator might not have been unhappy with apartment life, and Bill Holmstrom, the zoo's reptiles manager, thinks, "I don't think he would climb up and look out the window. I don't think he would stare out a window like a cat might do, but you never know." Now in Ohio (56 miles from Ming), Al has been renamed Lucky and likes to give humans the eyeball from under the heatlamp. Awesome.

Animal lover and only known New Yorker to have had both a tiger and an alligatory animal in apartment, Antoine Yates, says he misses his tiger Ming. Even though Ming mauled him, Yates told reporters, "It's the pain in my heart that's really bothering me. It's like a part of me just left. I really do miss him." Which leads many to think Ming's new residence in Ohio is unfair to Yates. His sister-in-law says, "I don't think he did anything wrong, besides keeping it in a project. It needed its own plot of land, like 110th Street, Central Park." Tigers, roaming Central Park? That'll be like Ancient Rome! But it's true, Gothamist would miss its tiger if it were taken away from us while we were at the hospital being treated for mauling injuries.

If you have ever complained about how tiny your NYC apartment is, think about the poor, poor 400 pound tiger cooped up in a Harlem apartment building. Police removed the 400 Bengal-Siberian tiger, Ming, from the apartment of Antoine Yates yesterday, calling in a police officer who needed to be rappelled down the building, in order to shoot the tiger with a tranquilizer gun. Also found in the apartment: A caiman alligator named Al. Officer Martin Duffy said the tiger charged at him, breaking the glass of the window: "I have to say I got a little nervous – I'm not going to lie." But he successfully darted Ming, who was later carried out by many people, from places like the NYPD, Bronx Zoo, Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty and Animals and the Center for Animal Care and Control.