MovieChat Forums > Fatal Attractions (2010) Discussion > 'A Tiger Loose in Harlem'.

'A Tiger Loose in Harlem'.

posted 11 years ago by mojo2004
2 replies | jump to latest

I've seen this episode many times about Ming the tiger and owner Antoine Yates. Going back a few years ago when I first saw the episode ,it bothered me that so little info was given about how this was possible. Most of these stories focus on how one person becomes obsessed with a dangerous pet or pets and throws caution & safety to the wind.

I find it hard to believe that an entire building of people thought it was ok that a man had a grown tiger in his apt!! The smell had to be on all floors! As someone else noted the show left out so much that should have been included. For one thing he also had an alligator which was kept in the bathtub.

I found it beyond disturbing to find out that Antoine Yates' mother who also lived in the apt ,took in foster children as a way to have income. When she left it was because she no longer felt it was safe for her or the children she had with her then and she moved to Philadelphia. Still shame on her for even allowing it!

Yates then took in boarders. Apparently they came to not be bothered that a 500 tiger lived there.

I read one story that said Yates was involved in selling drugs and the tiger & alligator was his protection from drug addicts & people looking to steal his drugs. I know that would explain why an entire building, including management would keep their mouths shut?? The neighbors in fear. Management & staff because they were being paid to. How else to explain the fact that apparently management never had a reason to enter the apt for anything the 2 years the tiger was there!

I find it quite sad that no one who could have done something acted. The mother moved away. The brother seemed to find the situation funny while speaking in the episode. If Ming had gotten out of the apt the outcome could have been horrifying.

I also want to know if anyone in authority was held accountable for the fact that this went on so long? The Housing Authority. Child Protection Services. People who worked for those agencies that were in & out of that building or should have been didn't do their jobs! How was Yates subletting rooms in a housing project? How was he allowed to keep a 5 bedroom apt after his mother moved out? The people that did rent roomS must have been drug addicts if they thought it was ok to stay after seeing Ming room free on the apt!

I also read that Mayor Bloomberg asked many of the same questions.

I'm glad Ming was rescued and lives at a sanctuary. Shame on Antoine Yates. He had the nerve to complain about losing his freedom when they locked him up for 6 months for reckless endangerment! It should have been a lot more!

OMG I can't believe I found this link. Antoine Yates had the nerve to sue the city of NY & the NYPD for entering his apt without a search warrant & confiscating his tiger and alligator, saying they violated his constitutional rights!

link:http://www.jweinsteinlaw.com/pdfs/tiger.pdf

Sheldon:"Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon."

[–] mojo2004 11 years ago

I read the document and the facts seem to be different that what was told on the show.

On the episode it was stated Antoine was attacked and went to the hospital for treatment. The hospital reported the incident and said he had left the facility so the police went to the address to investigate.

According to the 19 page document:

An anonymous caller twice dialed 911 and said that a man had been “bitten by dog” at Yates’s address, 2430 Seventh Avenue, Apartment 5E. Police officers responded to the apartment building, which was owned and operated by the New York City Housing Authority, and found Yates “lying face-up on the floor” near the fifth story elevators “screaming and crying in pain.” Included a gash below his right knee that exposed the bone and a half-inch cut to his right forearm. ( Yates told the officers he had been bitten by “a large brown and white pit bull.” EMS personnel arrived on the scene and took Yates to Harlem Hospital; all the while, Yates continued to insist that a “pit bull” or “dog” had bitten him. Two days later, on October 3, the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) received an anonymous tip that a tiger was living inside 2430 Seventh Avenue, Apartment 5E, and that the tiger had mauled a man who was recuperating at Harlem Hospital.

Officers responded to the location but did not enter the apartment because no one answered the door. Later that evening, the police returned to the building and interviewed one of Yates’s neighbors, who said that there was “a large wild animal,” apparently a “full-grown tiger,” living in Yates’s apartment. The neighbor said that Yates had shown the animal to her daughter and that “large amounts of urine” sometimes cascaded from Yates’s window down into the window of her apartment. The police also went to Harlem Hospital to speak with Yates, who insisted that he had been bitten by a pit bull in the stairwell of his residence and that he did not own a tiger. At midnight, NYPD Captain Michael Polito interviewed Yates’s brother Aaron, who said that Yates had both a fully-grown tiger and a large alligator living inside his apartment. Aaron also said that on the night before, he had opened the door to his brother’s apartment, thrown in several pieces of raw chicken and watched as the tiger came
toward the food. He added that Yates had acquired the tiger when it was a cub, about one-and-a-half to two years ago, and had raised the tiger in the apartment since then.

Yates accused the police of stealing $7,000 in cash,$30,000 in jewelry along with a plasma tv & a dwarf rabbit. Just like on the judge shows he had no proof of having the money or other items with receipts or statements. The court threw the lawsuit out stating he had "chutzpah" in bringing it.

The real lawsuit should have been against Yates. Because my questions to him would have been:

With over $40,000 in assets why are you living in public housing?

What taxes have you paid?

Sheldon:"Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon."

[–] Haifis 9 years ago

Guys, please.
A lot of what you heard about Antoine isn't true.
I know Antoine. (I met him AFTER the whole scenario with Ming.)
Antoine is very loving with his animals. This is a guy who loves animals very much.
Ming was found to be in excellent condition by the vets. A very healthy tiger. He had no illnesses and was fed well every day. Antoine loved Ming very much.
I DO NOT condone Antoine keeping Ming in the apartment.
It was too small for Ming and we all know that.
But calling Antoine a drug dealer? No, that is not true.
The reason Ming attacked Antoine is because Antoine took in a small cat named Shadow. Antoine began spending time with Shadow and one time Ming got very jealous and lunged at Shadow with the intent to kill him.
Antoine jumped in the way to stop it and ended up on the recieving end of Ming's powerful jaws.

We agree that Ming would have been left better in the wild.
But Antoine is not a bad person. Antoine regrets that he failed Ming.
But he truly loved that cat. Antoine has nursed sick and dying animals back to health. He is educated in vet medicine. Now that he lives in a larger place, he has animals that he takes care of. He is a good man. Made some really screwy mistakes but he knows that.

Thank you for reading.

Warmest Regards