Roy Horn walking and talking again

10 March 2004

HAMBURG – Magician and animal trainer Roy Horn, severely mauled on stage by a tiger five months ago, is walking and talking again and says he is “feeling fine”, according to a German magazine.

“As everybody knows, I was nearly six feet under there for a little while,” the 59-year-old Las Vegas showman told Bunte magazine, which hits newsstands across Germany Thursday.

“But now I’m feeling fine.”

He has hired the same physiotherapist used by Christopher Reeve and works with him nine hours a day.

“He has no problem speaking,” partner Siegfried Fischbacher, 64, was quoted as saying. “But due to his stroke, he sometimes pauses for a couple of seconds trying to find the right word.”

Siegfried and Roy are negotiating with NBC television to produce a special about lions and tigers.

Earlier, Siegfried and Roy’s spokeswoman Claudia Dressler said Horn can now “walk 500 paces” with the aid of a walking frame.

Horn has recovered the use of his voice enough to say that he now believes he suffered a stroke during the fateful stage show in Las Vegas on October 3 – his 59th birthday.

Eyewitnesses recall seeing Horn stumble and fall, upon which the 270-kilo tiger lunged toward him. The cat’s enormous jaws locked on his throat and the animal dragged him from the stage.

At the time, it was assumed the tiger had attacked the dark-haired member of the German-born illusionists duo.

But Horn believes the Bengal tiger, called Montecore, sensed he was in distress and carried him off stage as a mother cat carries a kitten by the nape of its neck.

That version of the story was first put forth by Fischbacher in an interview with CNN’s Larry King several weeks ago. He told King the tiger was trying to help Horn since it clearly could have killed him in an instant were it vicious.

“Listen, I say it was an accident,” Fischbacher, 64, told King. “If it would be that the tiger would be out for killing Roy, it would (have happened) in no time.”

Immediately after the incident, doctors said Horn had suffered “a pretty severe stroke” but it had been assumed the stroke was a result of the attack.

Horn has been reunited with Montecore and the other tigers at the sprawling Siegfried and Roy compound in Las Vegas, where the entertainer is recuperating.

The 30-year Siegfried and Roy show was cancelled immediately after the accident and continued to remain dark until further notice.

Horn and Fischbacher are veteran performers famous for using tigers and other big cats in their stage act, one of the most successful in Las Vegas. Despite ticket prices of more than USD100 (EUR82), they drew more than 700,000 fans annually.

DPA
Subject: German news