The LSU Vet School announces the university’s live mascot Mike The Tiger has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The second dose was administered on Friday. Spokesperson Ginger Guttner says an animal health company called Zoetis donated the vaccine
“They are donating more than 11,000 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine for animals living zoos, academic institutes, sanctuaries, and things like that, Mike received one of those free vaccines.”
Guttner says it was important for Mike to get vaccinated because it has been determined that Tigers can, in fact, contract the virus.
“We learned in 2020 that tigers are susceptible, there were some tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo in New York that contracted the virus they believe from their zookeeper, there’s not a way to know for sure.”
If you’ve noticed certain barricades around the habitat for LSU’s beloved mascot, Guttner says that was to keep Mike a safe distance away from people to avoid getting sick.
“We put up barricades because just as social distancing is important for people it’s important for him and so it was to keep people a little further back to give him more than that six feet of space between him and his visitors.”
The barricades are scheduled to be removed next week.
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