CARIBARENA Antigua & Barbuda

After winning a lengthy legal battle for the right to keep exotic pets, the Canadian owner of a tiger has been mauled to death by the 300kg cat.

Norman Buwalda, 66, was found dead in the tiger's pen on his property in rural Ontario on Sunday afternoon, local time.

"He had gone in to feed the tiger and possibly had been attacked," Ontario Provincial Police Constable Troy Carlson said, indicating there were no witnesses.

"A family member found him dead in the tiger's cage. We don't know what may have provoked or caused the attack."

Mr Buwalda had two tigers, as well as two lions and a cougar at one time, but one of the tigers died last year.

In 2004, a tiger attack on a 10-year-old boy visiting the property sparked a two-year legal battle between Mr Buwalda and the nearby Southwold Township over the council's subsequent ban on keeping wild animals as pets.

The boy was treated in hospital after reportedly slipping and falling near one of Mr Buwalda's tigers, which had been brought out of its cage on a heavy chain to be photographed for the boy's school report on Mr Buwalda's exotic pets.

Mr Buwalda challenged the ban in court, and won. An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled the bylaw was flawed and too broad.

 

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