Florida Woman Keeps Bengal Tigers In Her Garden

While most people spend their golden years relaxing in their garden, Janice Haley chose to hand feed the two tigers she keeps in hers. Saber, a 600 pound white Bengal male and Janda, a 400 pound orange Bengal female live in a cage in the back of Janice's unassuming suburban home.Show more

"As far as they’re concerned, I am mommy," explains 57-years-old Janice Haley. "They rub me in the face, they’ll let me kiss them on the nose."

It all began back in 1995, when Janice decided to quit her boring desk job as an admin assistant to spend more time working outdoors. At her husband’s advice, she began working with exotic animals. After spotting an ad for a tiger training course in her local paper she applied and two years later arrived home with Chuffer the tiger cub. She was immediately "bitten" by the tiger bug and since that, she has been taking care of quite a few different big cats. In 2002 she bought Janda, who is now 12, to live with Chuffer. After Chuffer's death in 2007, little Saber who was only two weeks old at the time was introduced to the enclosure. Well, much to the annoyance of Janda...

Plenty of volunteers help her take care of them and play with them as well. Each day she hand feeds the gentle giants and Saber, the baby of the pair, which can't get off to sleep without suckling on her finger. The tigers live in an enclosure in her backyard and are fed by hand three times a day.

"People who consider it cruel to keep them in captivity have a point, to a point. It is not the ideal place for a tiger to be, in a cage. But at this point, in the wild, there isn’t a lot of hope out there for them anymore, and if there aren’t some of them left in cages, there aren’t going to be any left at all in a couple of years from now… They are provided for and loved here. In my opinion, I wouldn’t mind being a tiger in my backyard."

Watch the full story of this "tiger" lady and see how these giant cuddlers love spending time with her!