Teachers at a daycare centre in Johannesburg, South Africa were shocked last week when, during outside playtime, they looked up and saw a white tiger watching them.
The tiger is the neighbour’s pet and was seated on a jungle gym overlooking the crèche (daycare centre). Since then, playtime on that side of the crèche grounds has been stopped.
Speaking to TimesLIVE on Wednesday, the crèche owner — who asked for her name and that of the school to be withheld — said they had since learnt their neighbour had acquired two large white tigers. She has taken several pictures of the tigers from her premises.
Since spotting the animals, the crèche owners have had to cage in the children out of fear the tigers could jump over the fence.
“That fence is not high enough and the tigers will jump. If they don’t jump into our school, they will jump into our other neighbour’s house and, just across the road, there is an old age home. There are approximately four schools in this street so this is a danger to everyone living in the area,” the crèche owner said.
She said she told the children’s parents about the tigers and since then several children have stopped coming to school.
She has approached the owner of the tigers, wildlife organisations and the local councillor with the hope she can receive assistance. She said this has yielded no results because there is seemingly no legislation in place around keeping tigers.
“At this stage, we feel like these wild animals have more rights than us,” she said.
No Laws Against Keeping Tigers
The tigers’ owners, Matthew and Anneline Kruger, through their lawyers, told Netwerk24 they complied with all the regulations in Gauteng province regarding the keeping of exotic animals on their premises.
The attorneys representing the couple said there was nothing that precludes their clients from having a wild animal on their property.
Animal welfare organisation Four Paws said it had been alerted about the tigers this week.
“The images are appalling, but we are not shocked by them,” said Four Paws director Fiona Miles.
“Tigers have very little protection under SA law, despite being considered an endangered species. This is particularly true in Gauteng, where such cases of private keeping are prevalent.”
According to Four Paws, there are around 1,500 tigers kept in captivity in SA, though there are fewer than 4,000 left in the wild.
“Many tigers are kept in suburban homes for reasons such as social media exposure”.
The crèche owner said in March, the tiger owners had approached her, asking if they could extend their wall. She said she was told this was because they wanted to build a flat-like dwelling in their backyard for their children, and required the high wall for safety.
But she suspects this was for the tigers.
“We first saw the tigers last Thursday. I heard people talk about there being tigers, but we had never seen them.”
