WEST PALM BEACH, Fl. — “Slammer,” a Bengal tiger, first met wildlife expert Mark McCarthy when he was just a cub.
Mark remembers it in vivid detail: a call from law enforcement, a tiger found in an Orlando-area motel, the owner on his way to jail, and the question of where he and another exotic animal would go. McCarthy acted fast.
Fifteen years later, Slammer and Mark are still together and closer than ever. Slammer will typically come right up to Mark and lick his hand, in his enclosure at McCarthy’s Wildlife Sanctuary in Loxahatchee.
But, despite being more than a decade old, Slammer’s case sheds light on the still-present problem of exotic animal smuggling.