LISTEN | Owner of Sheba the tiger opens up about escape

Rassie Erasmus, the owner of eight-year-old Sheba, a Bengal tigress which escaped from his 11.5ha plot in the Walkers Fruit Farm area of Midvaal, south of Johannesburg, has opened up about the events leading up to the predator’s escape last weekend. 

Erasmus spoke to TimesLIVE on Friday about raising two big cats, the chain of events leading to Sheba’s escape and the amount of “guts” it took for him to track, shoot and kill the big cat, which he had hand-reared from a cub, on Wednesday morning.

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Erasmus, who would not reveal his age but said he was close to his 60s, said he was a businessman who was against the idea of owning tigers. 

“I never got them. My mom got them. Big cats were one of her passions. She was an animal lover, like myself. I am not sure where she got them from. I was never interested in tigers from the start. Any open-minded person will tell you not to bring tigers home. My words from the start were ‘this animal is not going to stay as small as it is, it’s going to grow’. I never bought into the idea.” 

Erasmus claimed he was not sure where his mother got the tigers from. He said shortly before she passed away, she made him promise he would take care of them. 

“First she got Tyson. Tyson was three months old when she got him and then it was Sheba. Sheba was a small cub. I think she was three days old.”

He said Tyson and Sheba were neutered and were not acquired for breeding purposes. 

“People are saying Sheba was pregnant and that’s why she escaped. She was spayed so she couldn’t have cubs. The plan was never to breed with them or keep them for any financial gain. The plan was to keep them because she had a passion for cats.” 

Enclosures

Erasmus said the enclosures Tyson and Sheba were held in during the day were “about half the size of a rugby field”.

“We planted bamboo and they had a big waterhole where they could jump in. There were stumps and car tyres they could play with.

“At night they would come into the bigger enclosure and roam around the house.” 

He said he had built their enclosures in a way that should the cats escape, they would enter into a catchment camp where they would be safe until he could secure their enclosure.

“The fence that held them in was a bonnox fence with wire mesh and electric fencing. The bonnox fence was doubled and on the inside of their camp was razor wire.”

He alleged the perpetrators had cut through all the fencing, from the tigers’ enclosure to the catchment camps.

“Their enclosure fences were cut, the secondary catchment camp fences were cut and the outside fence was cut.”

He claimed the perpetrators had burnt the energiser for the electric fences to the tiger enclosures.

“It’s not the first time. They would cut the electric fence and we would fix it. The alarm would go off when the electric fence was cut but we wouldn’t know where exactly it was cut.” 

Erasmus said he suspects the fence was cut by an aggrieved former employee who had occasionally done odd jobs on his farm. 

Chain of events

According to Erasmus, Sheba escaped from her enclosure last Wednesday night after the electric fence, wire mesh and barbed wire had been cut. 

Sheba stayed in a catchment camp on the property, where she killed a fallow deer on Friday. She remained there until Saturday. 

On Saturday night, he alleged, perpetrators cut the outside fence. On Sunday morning, Sheba escaped into the open.

“She killed two dogs and a pig thereafter.”

He disputed William Mokoena’s chain of events in which the 39-year-old father of one was attacked by Sheba on Saturday night. 

He said between Sunday and Tuesday, Sheba had been near his property in a secluded area of bush where she had water. She  returned to the property on Tuesday night for food but evaded capture. 

In the early hours on Wednesday Sheba made her way to a nearby farm, about 3km away from his property, and found herself between a cattle farm and a nursery.

“There are about six houses on that farm that are close together. There are dogs and domestic animals. It’s very dense there. From 2am we went on foot and tried to track her but it was difficult because the bush was very dense.” 

Darting the tigress with a tranquilliser was not viable at that time, he said.

“We tried to contact the vet but due to load-shedding I couldn’t get hold of him. If I did get hold of him, he’s 45 minutes away. From where we found her, about 50m away, was a kraal full of cattle. I saw the farmer and he said: ‘Oh God, Rassie, if she gets into the cattle — please Rassie.’” 

‘It takes guts’

Erasmus said the emotional toll of having to shoot Sheba was immense. 

“It takes guts. She was my tiger, I raised her.”

He said they had spotted her three times before he made the call to shoot her. 

“I even called her, I made noises they make in the wild. I could communicate with them. After eight years you learn to speak tiger, you walk in and you speak their language. She didn’t respond.”

As an experienced marksman, he was able to take the shot with proficiency.

“I thank God I had the opportunity to shoot her myself. As heartbreaking as it is, I would have hated to see somebody else shoot her.” 

The male tiger was darted and relocated to the Bloufontein Wildlife Park for safekeeping on Monday.

In a statement on Friday the NSPCA said it would investigate the matter “taking various angles into account, and is giving serious consideration to taking legal action against the owner of the tigress for the events that have unfolded.

“The SPCA remains opposed to the keeping of wildlife in captivity.”

TimesLIVE

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