Tiger owner killed by beast he fought courts to keep

Norman Buwalda, a 66-year-old Dutch-born exotic animal collector from Southwold, Ontario, entered a tiger's cage on January 10, 2010, to feed the animal. He did not come out alive. The tiger—a 47-stone cat he had fought years to keep—attacked and killed him. A family member found his body and managed to lock the animal away before calling for help. When Ontario Provincial Police arrived, the tiger was pacing inside the compound where it had been confined.

What made Buwalda's death a particular kind of tragedy was not simply that he had been killed by an animal in his care, but that he had spent two years in court to ensure he could keep that animal there. In 2004, a 10-year-old boy had been mauled by one of Buwalda's Siberian tigers—the child had slipped and fallen near the animal while it was being led out on a heavy chain so he could photograph it for a school project. The boy suffered severe injuries to his neck and head and was hospitalized. The attack prompted Southwold Township to pass a bylaw banning the ownership of exotic animals on private property.

Buwalda challenged the ban. He was chairman of the Canadian Exotic Animal Owner's Association, and he believed he had the right to keep what he wanted on his own land. An Ontario Superior Court judge agreed, ruling the bylaw was flawed and too broad. Buwalda appealed further, and the Supreme Court of Canada sided with him. The legal victory meant he could continue housing his collection: two lions, two tigers, and a cougar, all living in a screened-in outbuilding on his property. He was never charged in connection with the 2004 attack on the child, because the law permitted him to own the animals.

Neighbors had spent nearly a decade trying to have the exotic animals removed. Their efforts failed. Joanne Does, who lived nearby, told the Toronto Star that Buwalda had once said he trusted animals more than people, that he felt closer to them. "He appeared like a bully," she said, "but he was a very sad man, lonely I think." Another neighbor, Patricia England, recalled that Buwalda had insisted his animals wouldn't hurt anyone. She disagreed with his choice to keep them there, but she was clear about where blame lay: "It's not the animal's fault. It was just doing what a tiger does."

After Buwalda's death, the tiger was removed from the property and rehomed. His collection was disbanded. The case left behind a stark question about the gap between what the law permits and what safety demands—and about a man who had won his legal battle only to lose his life to the very thing he had fought so hard to protect.