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Ming of Harlem

Ming was a tiger that was found living in an apartment in Harlem, New York City, in October 2003, when he was approximately three years old. Ming lived semi-openly with his owner, Antoine Yates, in a room of Yates' five-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a large public housing complex in Harlem. Several other normal and exotic pets were found in the apartment, including an alligator named Al in another bedroom.

Ming
Ming's resting place in Hartsdale, NY
SpeciesPanthera tigris
BreedSiberian/Bengal (P. t. altaica/tigris)[1]
SexMale
BornFebruary 2000[2]
Racine, Minnesota, United States[3]
DiedFebruary 4, 2019 (aged about 19)[4]
Noah's Lost Ark Animal Sanctuary, Berlin Center, Ohio[4]
Resting placeHartsdale Pet Cemetery, Westchester County, New York[4]
Known forResiding in an apartment building in Harlem, New York
Owner
  • BEARCAT Hollow (2000)
  • Antoine Yates (2000–03)
  • Noah's Lost Ark Animal Sanctuary (2003–2019)

Ming was taken to Noah's Lost Ark Animal Sanctuary in Berlin Center, Ohio, where he died from natural causes in February 2019. He was buried at the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.[4]

Yates received a 5-month prison sentence for reckless endangerment.

History

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Two of the five buildings in the Drew-Hamilton complex (2012)

In April 2000, Antoine Yates, a 31-year-old part-time taxicab driver and resident of Harlem, New York City, purchased Ming, an 8-week-old male Siberian–Bengal tiger hybrid, from the BEARCAT Hollow Animal Park in Racine, Minnesota.[2][3][5] Records indicated that BEARCAT Hollow had previously sold a lion cub to Yates, and Yates had found another home for the lion shortly after purchasing Ming.[2][3] Yates lived with the animals in Apartment 5E of the Drew-Hamilton Houses, a public housing complex; for five years, Yates left the apartment only once a day for an hour to purchase food.[5][6]

In an interview published in 2020, Yates clarified that he first had purchased Jabba, a lion cub that passed away at a young age, and then he purchased Ming and Nemo, another lion cub, as a pair. Nemo was included with the sale because he was ill and unlikely to live long. At the time he acquired Ming, Yates already owned an alligator named Al, which he had purchased legally in New Jersey. Yates refused to domesticate his animals, comparing himself to a “drill sergeant” training in their natural instincts.[6]

Discovery

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Ming's existence became known and reported in the media after Yates was taken to the Harlem Hospital Center emergency room on September 30, 2003 with bites on the arm and leg.[7][8] At the time of treatment, Yates claimed that his pet pit bull had bitten him;[9] however, the medical personnel were suspicious, because the width of the bite marks suggested an animal with a much larger jaw. Later, Yates said he had been bitten while trying to keep Ming away from Shadow, a cat he had recently adopted.[10][11] That day was the first time Ming had met Shadow. According to Yates, after Ming began chasing Shadow, Yates jumped in front of Ming, who bit and clawed Yates multiple times as he wrestled with the tiger. After Ming finally closed his jaws on Yates's knee, Yates recalled "That had me going through flashes of life. I was like, 'Oh my god, guess this is where I die at.'"[6] Yates declined to call it an attack, saying it was a natural reaction of Ming's frustration: "I'm walking around. I'm still alive. I haven't lost a limb. You couldn't even tell I got bit by a tiger, unless I told you and showed you the mark."[6]

On Thursday, October 2, the police received an anonymous tip that "there was a large wild animal that was biting people"; the same anonymous person followed up the next day by providing the animal's location at Yates's apartment.[9] Yates checked out of the hospital that same day, and following up on the tips, an officer of New York City Police Department was sent to his home address to investigate on October 3. Loud growling noises could be heard through the door of the apartment and the officer declined to enter.[8] The NYPD Technical Assistance Response Unit drilled holes through a neighbor's walls and used a camera on a pole to locate Ming. Martin Duffy, another police officer, was sent to the roof, from which he abseiled on a rope sling to look through the apartment's windows. Ming roared at Duffy, who then anaesthetized Ming by firing a rifle with a tranquilizer dart prepared by Dr. Robert Cook, then the Chief Veterinarian of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the city's zoos.[12]

After being shot, Ming charged at the window from which Duffy had fired, breaking it, then retreated into the apartment. Authorities waited several minutes for the sedative to take effect before an animal control team was sent into Yates' apartment. Dr. Cook used a catchpole and gave Ming another sedative injection to ensure he would remain asleep during transport. It took more than six men to carry Ming down via elevator to a waiting truck.[12] The team also discovered Al, a five-and-a-half-foot alligator that Yates had been raising in one of the other bedrooms.[10] Yates was later located at a hospital in Philadelphia and placed under guard.[8]

After Ming was discovered in Yates' apartment, questioning of the neighbors determined that the existence of the tiger had been widely known for at least three years, but as a sort of urban legend.[8] Yates regularly bought large quantities of raw chicken at the local supermarket, and one standing joke in the building was that he could eat so much chicken every day. By 2003, Yates was feeding Ming 20 pounds (9 kg) of chicken, livers, and bones per day.[12] The downstairs neighbor was aware that Yates owned many animals, in contradiction to Housing Authority rules, and her daughter had once seen Ming. The neighbor added it was not a problem until the summer of 2003, when she opened her windows for the first time that year and found her windowsills soaked with urine accompanied by a heavy animal odor.[13] In addition, Yates had had roommates, who were unaware at first of the animals in the home.[14] According to the New York Daily News,

A woman who shared a Harlem apartment with a 425-pound tiger said yesterday she was terrified at first—but soon got used to living with the man-eater down the hall. Caroline Domingo told the Daily News she couldn't believe her eyes when she spotted the big cat roaming free in the apartment where she and her husband rented a room from tiger-owner Antoine Yates. [...] But eventually, she said, "We all became family."[14]

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Yates was arrested on charges of reckless endangerment and the possession of a wild animal.[15] Later, his mother was charged with endangering the welfare of a child since she had been babysitting children in the apartment. As part of a plea agreement to reduce charges against his mother, Yates pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, and eventually served a five-month prison term with five years' probation.[16][17] He was released after serving three months, and subsequently he sued New York City for the loss of his pets (including a rabbit) and for $7,000 cash, which he claimed had also been in the apartment.[18] A judge dismissed the case, calling him full of "chutzpah".[19] According to Yates, the suit was dismissed because it would have revealed the New York City Housing Authority had not been conducting required quarterly inspections of the apartment, as records had stated.[6]

Life after incident

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Authorities decided to move the seized animals to more appropriate housing: Ming was sent to Noah's Lost Ark Animal Sanctuary in Berlin Center, Ohio, while Al was given a new home in Indiana.[20][16] For approximately a decade, human visitors were barred from visiting Ming in Ohio, but the sanctuary later changed their policy in the interest of enrichment. Ming lived in Ohio until he died on February 4, 2019, of kidney and heart failure. His remains were cremated and interred at Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York on April 20.[21] The cemetery donated the site and mausoleum.[22] According to the director of Noah's Lost Ark, "[Ming] lived a really good life here. He was able to run and play on the grounds. He had tiger friends. He had a swimming pool. He was able to experience the elements."[21]

Around 2010, Yates stated he lived in Pahrump, Nevada near Las Vegas with 22 big cats, including four tigers, having redubbed himself "Antoine Tigermann Yates".[2] He established the Reach Out And Respond (ROAR) Foundation in 2011.[23] A 2018 article in the New York Post cast doubt on Yates's veracity, noting that a licensed tiger owner in Pahrump stated that Yates had never lived in Nevada.[12] A 2020 interview with Yates stated that he was living in Philadelphia with his mother and "a more humble collection of snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises and chinchillas".[6] He was dismissive of the people documented in the Netflix mini-series Tiger King, calling them "ignorant ... so-called exotic animal lovers."[5]

In media

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In October 2010, the story of Yates and Ming was dramatized on the Animal Planet show Fatal Attractions. The episode was titled "A Tiger Loose in Harlem". A mix of re-creation and documented footage was used, complete with commentary by Yates, his family and police.[11]

Ming is mentioned in the documentary film, The Tiger Next Door.

Ming of Harlem: Twenty-One Storeys in the Air was screened at the New York Film Festival on October 3, 2014.[24]

A photo of Ming was used by New York City rap group Armand Hammer for the cover of their 2020 album Shrines.

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Tiger Captured in New York Apartment; Owner To Face Fines". Jet. 104 (18): 36–38. 27 October 2003. ISSN 0021-5996. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d Somaiya, Ravi (28 July 2010). "The trouble with tigers". Newsweek. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Laurence, Charles (12 October 2003). "Police probe couple who sold 400lb tiger found in Harlem flat". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d Kilgannon, Corey (2 October 2019). "Ming, the Bengal Tiger Raised in a Harlem Apartment, Has Died". The New York Times. p. A26. Retrieved 2 October 2019. Ming's cremated remains received a homecoming of sorts, as reported Monday in The New York Post. The remains were interred in April at the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester County, about 17 miles north of the Harlem apartment where Ming lived a pent-up childhood.
  5. ^ a b c Kilgannon, Corey (2020-04-18). "A 425-Pound Tiger Living in a Harlem Apartment? Yes, It Happened: Before "Tiger King," there was New York's infamous Tiger Man". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-04-19. Ming quickly went from bottle feeding to consuming 20 pounds of chicken thighs a day, which Mr. Yates would heft home each morning from a local supermarket. And in less than three years, the Siberian-Bengal mix grew into a 425-pound behemoth.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Burnett III, Zaron (2020). "The forgotten tiger king of Harlem". MEL. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  7. ^ Martha T. Moore (2003-10-09). "Tiger in Harlem among thousands of kept wild 'pets'". USA Today.
  8. ^ a b c d Polgreen, Lydia; George, Jason (October 6, 2003). "From a Cub to a Menace, and Now a Mystery". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Tiger, gator removed from Harlem apartment". CNN. October 6, 2003. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  10. ^ a b Saulny, Susan (October 8, 2003). "A Tiger's Keeper Says He Misses His 'Friend'". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  11. ^ a b "10 Questions with Antoine Yates". animalplanet.com. Animal Planet. 15 May 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d Fonrouge, Gabrielle; Italiano, Laura (November 4, 2018). "That time someone had a pet tiger in Harlem". New York Post. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  13. ^ "A New York tiger and alligator make it out of the projects". Taipei Times. New York Times News Service. October 7, 2003. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  14. ^ a b Colangelo, Lisa L.; Woodberry Jr., Warren; Goldiner, Dave (6 October 2003). "She Shared Apt. with Tiger, Gator: It Was a Room with a Zoo". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  15. ^ Saulny, Susan (December 19, 2003). "From Tiger Man to Sharp-Dressed Man for His Day in Court". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  16. ^ a b Tavernise, Sabrina (October 8, 2004). "Man Who Kept Tiger in Apartment Gets 5-Month Jail Term". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  17. ^ Ramírez, Eddy; Cave, Damien (July 21, 2004). "Tiger's Former Owner Reaches Plea Agreement". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  18. ^ Ortega, Ralph R. (December 24, 2004). "Tiger Guy Out, Eyes Reunion". New York Daily News. New York, New York. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  19. ^ Yates v. N.Y.C., 04 Civ. 9928 (S.D.N.Y. 2006) ("The word chutzpah, despite not debuting in a reported judicial opinion until 1972, is now vastly overused in the legal literature. Yet in a case such as this ... it is a most appropriate term to use."), archived from the original on 2014-10-13.
  20. ^ "Rescued Animals". Noah's Lost Ark. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  21. ^ a b Annese, John (October 1, 2019). "'He deserved some peace': Ming the Tiger, famously rescued from a Harlem apartment in 2003, has died". New York Daily News. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  22. ^ Spillane, Matt (October 2, 2019). "Ming, Harlem-raised tiger, buried in Hartsdale Pet Cemetery". Rockland/Westchester Journal News. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  23. ^ "EWCN: Team ROAR". Eden World Conservation Network. 2013. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  24. ^ "Projections Program 2". filmlinc.com. Film Society Lincoln Center. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
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