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Family Siberian tiger show continues a long tradition
By Bill Lilley
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Aug 29, 2008
As court jesters with animal acts, his forefathers entertained English royalty at Buckingham Palace.
Two centuries later, Clayton Rosaire is putting on the Big Cat Encounter Tiger Show at this week's Stark County Fair. He truly believes he has the better gig.
''I'm doing what I love doing in front of the people I love doing it for,'' he said. ''So how could anything get any better than what I have going here?''
Rosaire, 28, who is a ninth-generation family member to perform animal acts, works from May through Labor Day at about 12 county fairs throughout the country. He figures he puts on about 150 30-minute shows a year.
His season will end next week in Iowa and he'll head home to Sarasota, Fla., where he is vice president of the Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary.
But he's the first to admit that his can be a high-risk occupation when you're working with Siberian tigers weighing more than 700 pounds each.
''You can never get away from the fact that they are meat-eating predatory cats,'' Rosaire said. ''I just look at it from the standpoint that it's an occupational hazard. . . .
''These five tigers are my family, but even family members turn on one another.''
Rosaire began learning from his family how to work with the big cats when he was 7 years old.
His parents, Jim and Kay Rosaire, were famous for their tiger acts. During the 1930s, his grandfather, Derrick Rosaire, was known throughout Europe as ''the Boy Wonder.''
''My grandfather was amazing as a teenager,'' Rosaire said. ''He could perform virtually every act in the circus.
''But he wasn't just a brilliant acrobat. He also was a great performer with animals.''
After a back injury at 19 severely limited his performances, Derrick become the first Rosaire to bring an animal act to the United States. He performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s.
''He really loved it here in the United States, so he bought some land for a great price in Erie, Pa., after The Ed Sullivan Show,'' Rosaire said. ''That was what brought our family to America to perform after six generations had performed for more than 150 years in Europe.''
A very cold winter, however, convinced Derrick Rosaire to move his family to Sarasota, known as the circus capitol of the United States.
There's a hidden agenda in Clayton Rosaire's daily shows at the fair, which runs through Monday.
''The obvious part of the show is to entertain people with beautiful animals,'' he said, ''and we do that by just letting the big cats do what they do naturally — jump, roll over, sit down on command. . . .
''But I also want to subtly educate the people on the animals. . . . People don't realize the harm being done to animals like these big cats. There is an incredible amount of overbreeding and illegal selling of exotic animals in this country.
''Just in the state of Texas, there are more tigers in captivity than in the entire wilds of the world. People see them as cute little animals when they are very young and think a tiger is just another pet like a dog or cat.
''The fact is, these are meat-eating predators — and you are what they will eat. People have them illegally and that makes it a problem to get rid of the tiger when it starts to get big and becomes unmanageable.
''Some tigers are put to sleep or shot to death for no reason. And some idiots simply take the tiger out into the woods and let it go, never thinking what could happen.''
For most of the year, Rosaire takes in big cats that people want to get rid of at his sanctuary in Sarasota. There, the animals can live out their lives.
''We use most of the money we generate through the shows during the summer to run the sanctuary throughout the year and keep the animals healthy and fed,'' he said. '' . . . They are amazing animals and are very intelligent.''
The Big Cat Encounter will be presented at 4 and 7 p.m. today, at 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. on Monday at the fairgrounds, 305 Wertz Ave., Canton.
Bill Lilley can be reached at 330-996-3811 or blilley@thebeaconjournal.com.
As court jesters with animal acts, his forefathers entertained English royalty at Buckingham Palace.
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