Watch how trainer of Cheddar’s tigers plays with the big ‘cats’

The issue of keeping wild animals as pets has become topical over the last few days on both social and traditional media.

This is after residents of Wonda World Estates, near the British High Commission in Accra, expressed deep concerns over the presence of two tigers in their neighbourhood. The big cats belong to Businessman, Nana Kwame Bediako, popularly known as Freedom Jacob Caesar or Cheddar.

Multiple media reports quoted some residents who spoke about the discomfort they suffered due to the presence of the animals. “The animals stink. Those animals are held inside an apartment where there is no access to proper fresh air. As soon as the door is open, you sniff a strong unpleasant smell emanating from them.”

Others also said, “They are opened early in the morning and then sent inside around 10 am. They pee and poo on the floor. They also make noise which disturbs our sleep.”

A viral video of how Samuel Tiwonitaaba Kuteba, the trainer of the tigers, plays with the big cats has surfaced on social media.

The trainer is seen issuing commands to one of the tigers in a cage as the animal religiously obeys.

“Let’s go; roll on, roll on, yes! Come on let’s go; roll this way, roll, yeah!” Kuteba said to the tiger in the video while the other tiger walks unconcerned, from one end of the fenced structure to another.

“You see how sociable they are; they’d welcome you alright, I will touch them, I hold them, I hold their tails, they would say ‘hello’ to me, we’d go there, we play ball and they are okay,” the trainer added.

Kuteba in an interview with the media indicated that the tigers have been declawed, therefore, they are no longer dangerous to the public.

He said, since he started training the tigers some four months ago, he has realised that it feels good to be with them.

“Every time I come near them I don’t want to go back home because it is nice to be with them, they have a way of communicating.

“I love to be with them because of the way they are. Tigers have some areas in their lives that make them very dangerous, that is their nails.

“So we said if that is the dangerous part of them then why can’t we declaw them, so these animals that we are talking about that they are dangerous, their nails have been declawed, they don’t have nails,” the trainer told journalists on Friday, May 20, 2022.

Meanwhile, the two tigers according to an official of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission are “safe, healthy and well protected.”

According to Luri Kanton, the Director of Operations at the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, after a visit to the facility where the animals were held, the big cats will soon be relocated.

“The tigers are safe, healthy and well protected and relocation will be done after investigations.

“A new structure would’ve to be constructed at a new location before the relocation of the animals could be done,” Luri Kanton told the media on Friday, May 20, 2022.