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Nergers Splendid Tigers
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Nerger's Tigers
On 12/7/2021 the Nergers USDA license was cancelled. The Nergers had reportedly been hiding out at Big Cat Habitat, and were planning to ditch their six tigers and leave the country. In September 2021, they surrendered the tigers to the Florida FWC, which signed them over to Big Cat Habitat, which sent them to Tiger Haven. https://www.peta.org/blog/tigers-nergers-circus/
2021 Roadside Zoo News reports Brian Werner being a dumping ground for allegedly sick and dying tigers from the Nerger's circus: Royal Bengal Tigers and Nerger Tigers Work Together to Neglect, Exploit Tigers
After the tigers were forced to perform in the Nerger's circus act, this white tiger was confined to a tiny cage so guests could take photos. How in the world is taking a photo in front of a caged white tiger educational for these children?
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"Nerger's Splendid Tigers" is an old-school circus act that's billed as the largest traveling tiger show in the United States. The Nerger Show features one dozen tigers which are forced to jump through flaming hoops, form pyramids, play leapfrog, and "dance." The act is run by Judit and Juergen Nerger, a pair of German tiger trainers who have worked in circuses throughout eastern Europe for nearly 30 years before coming to the United States. Over the years, the Nergers and their tiger show have worked at the infamous Cole Bros. Circus, the Tarzan Zerbini/Royal Canadian Circus, and many small "shrine circuses" across the country. They also perform at fairs and festivals.
Recent USDA Violations by Nerger's Circus:
2017-07-19_USDA IR_Judit and Juergen Nerger_33-C-0452_NCI_Redacted
2019-07-25_USDA IR_Judit and Juergen Nerger_33-C-0452_NCI_TRA_REDACT
The Nergers were employed by John Cuneo's notorious Hawthorn Corporation, a shadowy group with a history of severe animal abuse that leases exotic animal acts to traveling circuses. Hawthorn racked up over $272,000 in federal fines and had their USDA license revoked. These including failure to provide veterinary care to sick animals, housing pairs of tigers in 6 foot long travel cages for weeks at a time, attacks by tigers on staff (one of which allegedly involved a tiger being beaten with baseball bats), providing the head and skin of a white tiger to an individual who wanted to make a rug out of the parts, and using nothing but a single thin rope as a "barrier" between the public and adult tigers. Although the Nergers themselves have their own USDA exhibitor's license (#33-C-0452), their tigers were owned by the Hawthorn Corporation, and were housed at Hawthorn's Illinois facility when not on the road, raising serious concerns about the conditions the animals live in when not performing.
John Cuneo died in Sept. 2019 and it appears the show is now operated by Capitol International Productions under their USDA license.
The Nerger tigers were trained in 2002-3 at the Hawthorn facility by Luis and Marcia Palacio, a team of Mexican trainers who traveled the world in the 1980s with a "mixed act" featuring tigers, lions, leopards, and hyenas. Once the cats were suitably trained, Wade Burck (a circus trainer who once admitted to whacking animals with 2x4s because "they aren't capable of thinking like I do") mentored the Nergers in their "presentation methods" and accompanied them to their first few shows.
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In this video of the performance, the body language of the cats (ears pinned back, leaning away from the whips) clearly indicates that they are fearful and stressed. Despite the persistent myth that a large animal "can't be forced to do something it doesn't want to do", the motto of the circus is "the show must go on." In a 2011 interview for a local newspaper, the Nergers admitted that their tigers are naturally solitary creatures and only appear to "get along" while in the ring "because they know we are there". They also stated that every tiger is made to participate in every performance, even if it is in a "bad mood" that day.
More about the Nerger's
Cubs too small to perform being housed in the back lot of a 2009 Maine circus.
2009 article on a supermarket chain dropping their sponsorship of Nerger's act after learning about what they were supporting.
Interview with the Nergers from the Sherando Times
22 years with really big cats
A trainer opens up about tigers, PETA and constant danger
by Dan McDermott
Juergen Nerger and his wife Judit have been working with big cats for more than twenty years. They headline this year's Cole Bros. Circus.
For more than 30 years, Juergen and Judit Nerger have thrilled audiences with their big cat (and occasionally bear) shows. This year, the Nergers and their tiger act will be headlining the Cole Brothers Circus in Winchester during the 2011 Apple Blossom Festival.
The Sherando Times spoke with Judit Nerger about how she got into such an unusual and dangerous line of work. Nerger told us about her life with her feline colleagues, dealing with PETA and what goes through her mind when she hears about a trainer getting mauled, sometimes fatally, while doing what she and her husband do every day.
The Sherando Times: How did you get interested and involved in performing with big cats?
Judit Nerger: Oh, that's a long story from a long time ago. For me it just happened. My husband was working on it and we are originally from East Germany. It was different there and he was the lucky one who got picked out and got in to perform with big cats and train them.
Times: How long have you been performing in front of crowds?
Nerger: Oh gosh, I have to think about it. It's 22 years for me and for my husband it's already 25 years.
Times: Do you own these tigers and do you always perform with the same group?
Nerger: No, we don't own them. The owner is somebody else. We are just always around them, taking care of them, training, performing, etc.
Times: Typically, would you have to start when they are babies?
Nerger: Not really. It is just always nice if they are at a very young age but like with these cats, they were already 3 or 4 years old when we got them. So somebody else got them and started, training them. Most of the time, they are 1-1/2 or 2 years old.
Times: So definitely you start them young.
Nerger: Yes, we start them young but sometimes you start with older ones if you don't have any other choice. You can start with them at a very young age, even if they don't understand what you want, but it's all just playing around and making them understand this is where you are able to perform, finding out what they like to do which makes the training much easier because each cat has its own personality – they just have talent on specific things, you know?
Times: So really the cat dictates the show, to a degree because you discover what they like to do? Because obviously you can't force a tiger to do something it doesn't want to do?
Nerger: No, it's kind of pointless to do something which he really cannot.
Times: Do you work exclusively with tigers or also lions?
Nerger: Well, we used to have a lion but we lost him a couple months ago and we are still looking around for a new one to replace him. In the past, before we came over to the United States, we worked with bears too, brown bears.
Times: I noticed that when the circus travels and you see them, the elephants will typically be put in one pen but the tigers and lions they will segregate. Is that because they don't get along as well as some other animal species?
Nerger: Well, see a tiger in Mother Nature is always single. But lions are a different story. If you have an act with lions you can have all of them together. But with tigers, if you're lucky you can have 4 or 5 together. But in most cases it's like 2 by 2. That works out pretty good.
Times: Now they get along during the show. Is that because they are accustomed to each other?
Nerger: Yeah because we are always in there watching them, really not because they like each other, even if they sit right next to each other you never know. It's just they know we are inside and they don't have a chance to go at each other. So we have to be on top of it. We are the police in there.
Times: That's an interesting analogy. Like you said, they have different personalities and just like people they have good days and bad days. Are there some days when one is in a bad mood and you don't bring that tiger out that day?
Nerger: No, we take them all the time. We just go with the tiger then because before we line them up we can tell, okay this guy is in a bad mood. This female is in a bad mood or she just kind of doesn't want to do it today. You really put your feelings in there and just keep an eye on that tiger or do this or this today because there is something going on but we aren't leaving out any cats at any time unless they are sick.
Times: It was interesting when I saw an act 2 or 3 times. I was taking pictures of the circus and I noticed it was a very different show each day. One day they might be really active and energetic and then another day one of them might be having a lazy day but it was a very different show each time.
Nerger: Yeah, a show is never the same. Each show is different because you never know. They have moods like humans. Of course they have moods. Humans have moods and say, 'I don't want to do this." It's the same with big cats. I think with any animal it is the same because they have moods.
Times: One thing you have to ask when you talk to someone in your line of work because your line of work is potentially very dangerous and we hear stories every few years. The last one is what happened with the Siegfried and Roy show, a horrible accident. What goes through your mind when you hear something like that and what mistakes may have been made? I guess when something like that happens you learn from it?
Nerger: Yes, we do and each time something like that happens we always get a wake up call. We feel bad about what happened to the person but, I tell you what, most of the time it's really because the trainer did a mistake. So each mistake you do [the cats] want to take advantage of it. So many, many, many times we get a wake up call and say, hey, never let it be us and then for the next couple days we're going to be more … It's just a weird feeling. You think you know it but sometimes it is feels like you are getting into a routine and you really shouldn't because that's going to cost you your life. So more, more, more attention!
Times: I remember even when [Roy] was injured, he was down and he said, 'Don't hurt the cat!'
Nerger: Yeah, yeah, because it's not the cat's fault. They are just taking advantage of it because that's their nature. So we are saying always, the tiger is just sleeping, even if they are trained. Many people are getting it wrong. Many people think they are tame. They think they are pets and they are really not. They are just trained and the trainer has to always be on top of it. You cannot do any mistakes because the worst is going to happen.
Times: I know that the elephant folks are in a constant battle with PETA and other groups but I don't hear too much about the other animals. Is that something you have to deal with all the time or do they leave you alone?
Nerger: Well we have to deal with it, not all the time. And you know we even have a website for that reason because I don't want to get bothered by those people and once in a while you have people in front of the circus – they have demonstrations. Over the years you just get so used to it and it just doesn't bother you anymore. So we aren't even going into any arguments or discussions about it because it's pointless. They don't know what they are talking about. They have no idea. They don't understand so therefore we are pretty cool about it. It's not nice to get bothered by it but I can't change it. They have their mind. I have my mind and that's it. And actually with the large cats it's not so bad as with the elephants.
Times: Yeah I was just reading that at one point there were some elephants in the Cole Bros. Circus I guess last season, and they were calling ahead to each town the circus was in to talk to the local authorities and it was just this ongoing hassle that resulted in eventually losing the elephants.
Nerger: Yeah, I know. Sometimes it's really bad and some areas are really bad and sometimes you don't have anything like this so it just depends. It's very bad.
Times: Now you said you're from East Germany. I know that the circus, it's pretty much a novelty in The United States. A lot of kids grow up and they don't ever get a chance to see a circus except on television. It's a lot more popular and a bigger deal in Europe isn't it?
Nerger: Yeah, it's a big deal; but over the years it's just business is not too good. To be honest, we have way too many circuses in Germany right now and people will go to circuses they know – they always have good business. But [with] small circuses or family circuses they may have had a bad experience so they aren't going too often. It used to be a big thing, especially in East Germany because we had no entertainment really. We didn't have all those cool movie theaters and stuff at the time so it was a big thing.
Times: It was definitely a big difference before the wall fell. A big, big difference between East Germany and what they had.
Nerger: I have a feeling that the circus business here in the U.S. is going way better than in Europe.
Times: Have you performed before in The United States?
Nerger: We have been traveling here for over 8 years now.
Times: How do you like it?
Nerger: Uh, yeah! We like it!
By CatCarole|2022-01-16T08:28:04-05:00January 16th, 2022|0 Comments
About the Author: CatCarole
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