Lawmakers want to reintroduce live tiger to LSU sidelines

The LSU Tigers haven’t had their live mascot on the sidelines of football games since 2015. Now, some state lawmakers want to bring that tradition back.

According to a report from the Louisiana Illuminator on Thursday, Gov. Jeff Landry and Surgeon General Ralph Abraham believe acquiring a new tiger cub for game days would be beneficial.

The plan would be to keep LSU’s current live tiger, named Mike VII, in its habitat on campus and train the new cub — proposed name “Mikey” — at the veterinary school for the sideline atmosphere.

“If you had a young tiger — and that’s one of the things I told the governor — you know, you had a young tiger that was trained to handle those situations,” Abraham told the Illuminator of the idea earlier in September. “But to take a middle-aged tiger that has been captive in a certain way … I think it’d be a struggle.”

Mike VII has never seen the sidelines at Death Valley. The school ended the tradition with Mike’s predecessor in 2016, but even he saw limited action, missing the 2014 season entirely.