Tiger says no to life in the circus
September 15th, 2006 by admin
Today, the St. Petersburg Times reported on an incident in which a circus goon was injured by a tiger.
Lanelot Kollmann (also known as Lance Ramos, from the infamous Ramos circus family) suffered cuts on his shoulder and a “a gash on his lip that took stitches to close.”
According to Mr. Kollmann (and we do not trust him to be honest), he was cleaning the tiger’s cage when he stumbled, startling the animal.
The paper reported that Kollmann had purchased the 1-year-old, 250-pound tiger “a few days ago.”
Kollmann keeps leopards, jaguars, lions and 10 tigers at his property on Andrews Road in Balm (south of Tampa).
In 2000, an elephant on the Ramos family compound in Riverview trampled and killed a woman. Federal officials found that Manuel Ramos (Lance’s father) had failed to properly restrain the elephant, and he had to give up his federal license. The animals were then turned over to Lance. The USDA found Lance partially responsible for the fatal 2000 incident, and at first refused to issue him a license to exhibit dangerous animals. The Ramos family continues to perform under the name Oscarian Bros. Circus. Click here to read more about their history of animal neglect.
Please write to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and urge them to aggressively investigate this incident, and if Mr. Kollmann is found to be in violation of state regulations, not to renew Kollmann’s license to exhibit animals (his license expires in October). Click here to use FWC’s online comment page.
Also, demand that FWC prohibit the sale of big cats within the state of Florida (a federal law, The Captive Wildlife Safety Act, banned the interstate trade of lions, tigers and other big cats). Mr. Kollmann should not be allowed to purchase additional animals.
Also, please write to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and urge them to also investigate this incident. Ask them to revoke Kollmann’s USDA license if violations of the Animal Welfare Act are discovered.
E-mail USDA: aceast@aphis.usda.gov.