Watch: When Mike Tyson took his his pet tiger for a walk
Did you know that heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson used to own a pet tiger that he took for walks and played with?
Tyson used to care for a female White Bengal Tiger named Kenya. Tyson was a very hands-on owner, as he would take Kenya for walks, and even play with her. In a video an old interview with Roseanne Bar for Inside Edition, Tyson is shown being affectionate for the massive predatory feline:
The video shows Tyson - without fear - playfully wrestle with Kenya, and even take her for a quick dip in the pool. Tyson explained the level of caution needed to approach animals such as tigers:
"One minute they're looking at you, they may take a chunk out of you, then 20 minutes later, they come and lick you, so you gotta be very cautious with them."
Mike Tyson has lived quite a crazy life, and he will definitely be remembered for a number of very crazy things. Owning a 550-pound White Bengal Tiger however, could possibly be one of the craziest.
What happened to Mike Tyson's pet tiger?
Unfortunately, Mike Tyson had to let Kenya go after 16 years of being together.
In video for GQ sports, Mike Tyson explained why he had to let Kenya go.
"At one time, I did have a pet tiger, her name was Kenya, and she was around 550-pounds. I had great affection for her. I kept her, I slept with her, I kept her in my room. She stayed with me, I had her for probably around 16 years. She was a massive monster, you can't imagine the size of her. She got too old, and I had to get rid of her, her eyes and her hips got bad. Plus, she ripped somebody's arm off."
In an different interview on rapper Fat Joe's podcast, Tyson explained the story of Kenya ripping someone's arm off:
Tyson explained that a neighbor jumped his fence and ended up where the tiger was, leading to an unfortunate accident:
"Somebody jumped over my fence, where the tiger was, and jumped in there and started playing with the tiger, and the tiger didn't know the lady, so it was a bad accident...listen, when I saw what the tiger did to her hand, I had a lot of money back then, so I gave her $250,000, whatever it was, because she was just f*cked up, Joe."