Secret Report: No Known Cause for Roy’s AttackInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Roy Horn

The Australian reports this morning on the various theories floated for the brutal tiger attack on Roy Horn.

The
tiger-was-hungry theory has been ruled out. And there is no proof that
the animal was deliberately provoked by someone in the audience or that
a terrorist sprayed it with a behavior-altering scent, or that it was
unhinged by a woman with a beehive hairdo.

But
investigators still do not know what led a Bengal tiger to attack
illusionist Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy during a performance in Las
Vegas nearly two years ago.

The
Associated Press propounded a Freedom of Information Act request to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture and received the final report on the
accident. Unfortunately, the title “final report” is a
misnomer. There is no finality in a report that offers no
suggestion for the cause of the attack.

The report rules out several popular theories however:

A
veterinarian who examined Montecore after the mauling says the animal
appeared normal and the USDA report says the animal was fed on schedule;

The
Las Vegas Police brought in its Homeland Security Unit to debunk the
claim animal-rights activists provoked the attack or that it was an act
of economic terrorism against Las Vegas;

No evidence was
found to support claims far-UV and or high ultra sonics – triggers that
might be the work of a terrorist aiming at a high-profile gay target;

Las Vegas police say there was no proof a woman with a beehive hairdo distracted the tiger;

There was no support for the theory something or someone in the audience was sprayed with a scent that drove the animal wild.

The
report did conclude “the Siegfried and Roy show failed to protect the
audience because it had no barrier separating the exotic animals from
the crowd. The big cats could have easily jumped off the stage and into
the audience.”

Accordingly, despite the fact that the show
was performed in the same manner thousands of times without incident
and there was no suggestion the tiger had any chance of attacking
anyone in the audience, the USDA decided to cite the show with a
“letter of non-compliance?”

The other strange aspect of the report is the USDA’s desire to keep
the report secret. In fact, almost every page has redacted
portions — blacked out — apparently for national security
reasons.

You can download the full report here.

It is difficult to see
how this could be considered anything…