As a good friend of mine went to eat lunch at the union on Monday, she found a troubling piece of false propaganda plastered on a board near the front entrance.
The small leaflet bears the headlines, “Save Future Mikes” and “Please Don’t Donate.” The four by three inch piece of paper was tactfully held up by duct tape and is packed full of hypocrisies, misinformation and even attempts to twist a Bible verse to support its cause, but the cowardly person who made the leaflet failed to take responsibility and conveniently left any attribution off the paper.
Since I am the president of the Tiger Athletic Foundation Collegiate Club and work closely with DeLaine Emmert on the “I Like Mike” campaign, my friend rightfully thought that I would be infuriated with this attempt to discredit a University tradition and the much needed habitat.
While claiming to be concerned about the Tiger’s well being, it states “If tigers truly represent courage and honor, he would be willing to rough it out in a smaller cage or zoo if it meant future Mikes could live freely.”
Despite being obviously full of hypocrisy, this statement has to be one of the most ignorant ones I’ve read in my life. Do you really think Mike knows he represents courage and honor or that future Mikes would somehow benefit if he continues to live in the out-of-date cage?
The flier also makes the claim that when Mike I arrived “students sat in the street in protest to block his entrance.” False! In 1934, students each contributed twenty-five cents to purchase a tiger. When Mike I finally showed up in Baton Rouge in 1936, they staged a strike asking for classes to be cancelled so they could have a party to welcome the tiger. Students paraded through Baton Rouge, lit a bonfire that evening and had a grand party.
The next uniformed statement declares Mike will only be slightly happier in his new habitat. It assumes that Mike endures, but does not enjoy, his game-day ride into Tiger Stadium. Actually according to his veterinarian, Mike excitedly loads himself into the cage and impatiently pushes up on the door awaiting to get in.
Since the publisher assumes Mike knows values such as courage and honor, maybe Mike could talk to them too. I bet if Mike could talk he would say this is among his favorite activities.
The flier closes with a so-called “fun fact,” but like the other statements in the paper, it is anything but a fact. This so-called fact states, “Roughly half of the planned ‘habitat’ is actually a sports plaza!” Fortunately, this statement is also based in ignorance. Not a dollar of the proposed 2.5 million dollar habitat will go to building a “sports plaza.” Other proposals have been made to make a plaza near the area of the habitat, but the “I Like Mike Campaign” is strictly concerned with building a suitable home for our beloved tiger.
We are the only campus fortunate enough to house an endangered species on campus. This should not be looked at negatively, but as an opportunity for the University. There is little doubt that Mike deserves a better home and we should do all we can to accomplish this swiftly.
A new habitat would elevate Mike’s living condition, LSU’s image and awareness of the plight of tigers worldwide. Mike’s new habitat would be roughly eight times the size of his current cage and would further ensure a long, healthy life for the tiger that he most likely would not have in the wild.
Whoever took the time to publish this propaganda should have taken the time to examine the facts and take responsibility for its statements. This ignorant, cowardly propaganda attempts to jeopardize a campaign that is vital to the mission of the university, the well being of all future Mikes and the future of tiger conservation.