Eamonn Holmes reports for the Good Evening Ulster local news programme on the story of Samson the Royal Bengal tiger living in the Strangford constituency. A Northern Ireland MP had recently tried to get the Secretary of State to outlaw the tiger which was living in a cage beside a mobile home but that request had been turned down. 

The owners were a Mr and Mrs Bailey who also lived with their young daughter, two Alsatian dogs and a cat. They had recently also owned two monkeys who had perished when Mrs Bailey tried to treat their fleas with fly spray. A Barbery ape they also owned had apparently been swapped for the tiger through a local safari park after the ape had become too troublesome. Mrs Bailey admits that she would be nervous herself in her neighbours’ shoes but she claims that the fact the tiger has been taken for walks and not attacked anyone shows that it’s safe! She also points out that they have to keep the tiger in a good strong cage. Eamonn asks if the cage behind them qualifies as such and she admits that it doesn’t but that they are going to sort that out going forward.

There is also an interview with Marion Palmer, a local resident who is leading the campaign to have the tiger removed. The Causeway Safari Park comment through Eamonn that they wouldn’t advice people to keep tigers as pets but that it should be safe as long as it has been bottle-reared.