Andre

Male Tiger
1/1/96 – 2/24/19
Rescued 9/28/11

Andre Tiger passed away peacefully in his sleep. It’s very rare that a cat passes on their own here, as there are usually late stage medical issues that cause us to be on constant vigil which usually end in us having to make the decision to end a cat’s suffering. While Andre was getting special meals every day to make sure he ate enough, he appeared to be quite comfortable, right to the end. Just recently we watched him enjoying Valentine’s Day enrichment. His passing also gave Amanda time to process it, and she had already moved to the cage next door when we discovered and removed him. You can leave tributes to him in the comments below.

Arthur, Andre and Amanda were born in 1996 in New Jersey to be used as pay-to-play photo props.  It never makes sense to breed more cubs to raise money to feed last year’s cats, and the New Jersey facility fell into disrepair and then was shut down after USDA revoked their license following a tiger escape.

In 2003, Wild Animal Orphanage took in the 24 tigers but big cats have big appetites and by 2010 the Wild Animal Orphanage was in bankruptcy.

It took over a year to find permanent homes for all of the cats because it is hard to place a big cat who will cost $10,000 per year in food and vet care.

Amazingly, an anonymous donor couple who had known these tigers as cubs fortuitously stepped in to fund the ongoing care of these three lucky tigers who came to Big Cat Rescue in 2011.

Andre is the friendliest of the three tigers who live together. He always greets his keepers and guests alike with a hefty chuff.

He is easily identified within the group because all four of his canine teeth are broken off. According to his care givers at WAO, when he was rescued in 2003 he bit the transport cage and broke off all of his canines. After the incident he did not receive any dental care.

Once he arrived at Big Cat Rescue it became a top priority to get him and his mates the dental work they required. A specialist in veterinary dental work, Dr. Peak, arranged a visit to the sanctuary and performed four root canals on Andre which took nearly three hours. Now that the sensitive nerves have been removed from the canine nubs Andre is completely pain free.

Read more about the rescue of three tigers from Texas here.