The University demonstrated its love for tigers this week when the it agreed to give $10,000 to aid the transport and housing of 24 Bengal tigers confiscated on Tuesday from a compound in Jackson Township, N.J., by the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection, said Director of Community and State Affairs Pam Hersh.
"We were also encouraged to help by members of the University community who recognized our institutional attachment to the tiger as our mascot and symbol," Hersh said in an email.
The tigers, which are considered an endangered species, were seized in a raid by a unit of the State Division of Fish and Wildlife that included a sharpshooter, The New York Times reported.
The compound belonged to Joan Byron-Marasek, a former zoo performer with the nickname "Tiger Lady" who in 1976 founded the Tigers Only Preservation Society, according to the Times.
New Jersey has been trying to remove the tigers from the Jackson Township compound since January 1999 when one was discovered roaming loose in the streets, the Times reported.
After winning a legal battle to gain possession of the tigers, however, the state encountered the problem of funding an evacuation that will cost approximately $240,000.
Hersh said the DEP approached the University with a request that it financially aid the transportation of the tigers to the Wild Animal Orphanage near San Antonio, Texas, some 1,300 miles from Jackson Township.
"The DEP is an agency with whom we work extensively and [we] often ask them for help and advice," Hersh said. "So when they approached us for help, we wanted to do what we could."
Hersh said it appears other sources will also come forward to aid the tigers, since the University was not able to foot as much of the bill as the DEP had originally hoped.
"We were not able to provide anything close to the amount the DEP requested, but we told them that if they were able to obtain the rest of the funding they needed from other sources, we would contribute $10,000," she said.
The tiger unofficially became Princeton's mascot in the late 19th century.
Though it was never declared the University's mascot through a proclamation, the tiger assured its place in Princeton's history in the 1880s when football players wearing orange and black striped uniforms were referred to as "tigers."
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