WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT 66-year-old Norman Buwalda was gruesomely mauled to death by the very same pet tiger he had fought a two-year legal battle with the courts to keep.
Norman loved keeping exotic beasts as pets at his residential property(Image: AP/YouTube)
A man who fought a lengthy two-year court battle to retain the right to keep exotic animals on private property faced a brutal fate when he was killed — by one of his own pet tigers.
Norman Buwalda, also known as Norm, was 66 when he was fatally attacked in January 2010 by his own pet tiger. In the years prior to the deadly attack, Norm had fought against a local township bylaw which had been passed banning exotic beasts on private property due to a 10-year-old child being mauled by a tiger on Norm’s land in 2004.
The exotic pet owner from Southwald, Canada, managed to successfully defeat the bill in the Supreme Court of Canada and continued to have big cats in his care till 2010, including a 46.5 stone tiger, which ultimately went on to gruesomely kill Norm.
Gruesome tiger death for giant cat owner
According to the Toronto Star, the wealthy Dutch native had two lions, two tigers and a cougar as pets, and the giant cats lived in a screened-in outbuilding on his property.
On January 10, 2010, Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Norm was mauled to death by one of his own pet tigers at his property in Southwold, roughly 28 kilometres southwest of London, Ontario.
Norman had two tigers (pictured), two lions and a cougar as pets on his private property(Image: AP/YouTube)
Norm, who had spent years battling his neighbours over his exotic wild animal collection, had reportedly entered the 47 stone tiger’s cage to feed the animal when it attacked and killed him.
Ontario Provincial Police Constable Troy Carlson said in a statement at the time: “The owner of some exotic animals went out to feed the tiger which was in a cage or large pen and the animal attacked him and killed him.
“We don’t know what actually took place because no one witnessed it, but the tiger ended up attacking him and killing him.”
A short while later, one of Norm’s family members reportedly found his mutilated body and was able to lock the big cat in a separate section of the cage before calling for help. The wild cat was found pacing around inside the compound in which it had been sequestered when the police arrived.
One of Norman Buwalda’s tigers looks on from the window of its enclosure(Image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley/AP)
Following Norm’s horrific death, the killer tiger was taken away and rehomed, and the giant cat owner’s collection was disbanded.
Neighbour Joanne Does told the Toronto Star : “He told us once that he trusted animals more than he trusted people. He felt closer to animals than people.”
Adding: “He appeared like a bully… but he was a very sad man, lonely I think.”
Another neighbour, Patricia England, said that Norm had told them ‘his animals wouldn’t hurt a fly’. She added that as beings on this planet, ‘everyone has a place’ — and Norm’s home wasn’t the right place for wild animals.
Patricia said: “It’s not the animal’s fault. It was just doing what a tiger does.”
Not the first tiger attack
The fatal attack on Norm wasn’t the first to occur on his infamous property.
It’s not the first time someone was mauled by a tiger at Norman’s property (pictured)(Image: AP/YouTube)
Six years earlier, in June 2004, a 10-year-old boy had been mauled by a Siberian tiger which had been let out of its cage on a heavy chain leash, so the child could take the animal’s picture for a school report on Norm’s exotic pets.
The attack on the young kid sparked a lengthy two-year battle between Norm and the Southwold Township over the council’s subsequent ban on keeping wild animals as pets in private properties.
According to The Telegraph, the 10-year-old suffered severe neck and head injuries and had to be hospitalized after reportedly slipping and falling near one of Norm’s pet tigers who had been led out of its compound for photographs.
After the exotic animal bylaw ban was put in place, Norm challenged the ban in court, and won, with an Ontario Superior Court judge ruling the bylaw was flawed and too broad.
Norm, who also happened to be chairman of the Canadian Exotic Animal Owner’s Association, never faced any charges for his pet tiger’s attack on the little boy as he was legally entitled to own the animals.
Neighbours in the rural community of Southwold, Ontario, shared they had spent nearly half a decade fighting to have the exotic beasts removed from Norm’s property, however all their attempts failed.
