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American Morning
Interview With Antoine Yates, Raymond Colon
Aired October 13, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the bizarre story of a 400- pound Bengal tiger named Ming and the man who kept him as a pet in New York City.
Antoine Yates now faces charges of reckless endangerment and also possession of a wild animal. The tiger was removed by police commando style from Yates' Harlem apartment. That's after the big cat attacked his owner.
Antoine Yates joins us this morning along with his attorney, Raymond Colon. Gentlemen, good morning, nice to have you.
Mr. Yates, you know, I guess at the end of the day everyone asks how and why? I mean why would you want to keep a big, giant animal in an apartment in New York City? You know, I live here, too. We all have tiny apartments. What were you thinking about?
ANTOINE YATES, TIGER MAN: Well, basically it started, my love for animals, as a child. I always loved animals. First becomes an infatuation. And then after that a passion and love.
O'BRIEN: Some people say get a dog. Why a tiger?
YATES: Because it's basically when you look at animals, they're part of all of us. There's like I'd say a distant relative. It's like for example, if you had a dog, and I had a cat, it's really no difference. It's all an the love situation of how you treat it and respect it.
O'BRIEN: How did you get hands on Ming? You got Ming as a baby, right?
YATES: Yes, I bought him as a 3-weeks-old cub. I purchased him. I have papers and everything, you know, to show let you know it was not an illegal action that I took place in.
O'BRIEN: And you kept him in your -- I heard from the police described to us as a relatively large apartment. But describe for me how you kept him. In one of the bedrooms? And how did you feed him?
YATES: Well Ming basically, he spent a good portion of the day in a bedroom that I created for him. I called it a playpen. And you know, he spent another portion, you know, with me roaming the house, whatever, sleeping with me, so forth.
O'BRIEN: He slept with you in your room?
YATES: Yes. We cuddled.
O'BRIEN: There are so many people who would say these animals cannot be tamed. They're wild. Weren't you concerned about your own safety? And also the safety of the other people, again, in an apartment building? You had a lot of other folks there.
YATES: Yes. But I kind of realized throughout my whole life, trust is gradually built on, you know? And I really put my trust in that animal. Because there's times I put my trust in people and I got disappointed. But I had 100 percent trust in him that this incident wouldn't, you know, he would be fierce towards me one day.
O'BRIEN: He bit you. How are your injuries from that?
YATES: Well, I wouldn't say he bit me. It was more of an accident. It was more of a frustration bite. It wasn't an attack or anything. And my injuries so far I'm kind of doing OK. You know, it hurts a lot during the day. But on the main injury is in my heart.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Colon, your client faces seven years in prison for charges that we talked about. Reckless endangerment, possession of a wild animal. How do you possibly defend a case like this where the tiger was taken out of his apartment? I mean, it was there.
RAYMOND COLON, YATES' ATTORNEY: Well generally most crimes have an intent element. With the issue of the charge of reckless endangerment, what you have is some sort of disregard for a potential serious injury or death.
But in this case, I think anybody who's viewing this on the facts is going to be able to tell almost immediately that Mr. Yates is a very caring man, he's very methodical, he's thoughtful. This cat, this large cat, this tiger who's actually a brother to him, was at no time a danger to the public or anybody else in that housing authority.
And if he was, then certainly you would think that neighbors and tenants would have alerted the authorities or the housing authority would have known about it. But Mr. Yates took such meticulous care and was so careful to control the tiger's behavior and environment that no one was injured other than himself when his kitten ran out from behind him and the instincts of the tiger kicked in.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Yates, we don't have a ton of time. I just want to ask you one quick question. There are some who say if you truly loved animals like you describe yourself and you describe yourself as heart broken, you never would have thought about keeping a tiger in an apartment. That you would have said roam free, have lots of space and acreage. How do you answer people who say that?
YATES: I answer them like this: I've just recently seen a show, matter of fact last night, and there was other people that claim that they love animals, that had the acreage, that had the license -- the USDA license.
These cats was maimed. These cats was being dragged out dead. I mean they was four times as thin as my cat. The coats was pale. When you took a look at my cat, you could tell he was loved, he was in excellent condition.
The only fault that I had, that I didn't have the proper financial things to give him, the land to roam. But that was part of my journey. I mean, that was my essence of what I was trying to create, a paradise.
O'BRIEN: You had an alligator in there as well.
YATES: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: Were you planning on stacking the entire apartment with large animals?
YATES: No, no. As I say it was a temporary stock force. You know, because I recently looked in an investigation on some land. And just about this close from purchasing the land to the incident just happened. Like I said, my main thing and duty was to create a paradise, you know, a haven for us as people. Animals and plants which we often just get together and live as one.
O'BRIEN: Antoine Yates and Ray Colon, thanks for coming in and talk to us.
YATES: OK, thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: Best of luck with all your legal troubles ahead. We certainly appreciate your time this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 13, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the bizarre story of a 400- pound Bengal tiger named Ming and the man who kept him as a pet in New York City.
Antoine Yates now faces charges of reckless endangerment and also possession of a wild animal. The tiger was removed by police commando style from Yates' Harlem apartment. That's after the big cat attacked his owner.
Antoine Yates joins us this morning along with his attorney, Raymond Colon. Gentlemen, good morning, nice to have you.
Mr. Yates, you know, I guess at the end of the day everyone asks how and why? I mean why would you want to keep a big, giant animal in an apartment in New York City? You know, I live here, too. We all have tiny apartments. What were you thinking about?
ANTOINE YATES, TIGER MAN: Well, basically it started, my love for animals, as a child. I always loved animals. First becomes an infatuation. And then after that a passion and love.
O'BRIEN: Some people say get a dog. Why a tiger?
YATES: Because it's basically when you look at animals, they're part of all of us. There's like I'd say a distant relative. It's like for example, if you had a dog, and I had a cat, it's really no difference. It's all an the love situation of how you treat it and respect it.
O'BRIEN: How did you get hands on Ming? You got Ming as a baby, right?
YATES: Yes, I bought him as a 3-weeks-old cub. I purchased him. I have papers and everything, you know, to show let you know it was not an illegal action that I took place in.
O'BRIEN: And you kept him in your -- I heard from the police described to us as a relatively large apartment. But describe for me how you kept him. In one of the bedrooms? And how did you feed him?
YATES: Well Ming basically, he spent a good portion of the day in a bedroom that I created for him. I called it a playpen. And you know, he spent another portion, you know, with me roaming the house, whatever, sleeping with me, so forth.
O'BRIEN: He slept with you in your room?
YATES: Yes. We cuddled.
O'BRIEN: There are so many people who would say these animals cannot be tamed. They're wild. Weren't you concerned about your own safety? And also the safety of the other people, again, in an apartment building? You had a lot of other folks there.
YATES: Yes. But I kind of realized throughout my whole life, trust is gradually built on, you know? And I really put my trust in that animal. Because there's times I put my trust in people and I got disappointed. But I had 100 percent trust in him that this incident wouldn't, you know, he would be fierce towards me one day.
O'BRIEN: He bit you. How are your injuries from that?
YATES: Well, I wouldn't say he bit me. It was more of an accident. It was more of a frustration bite. It wasn't an attack or anything. And my injuries so far I'm kind of doing OK. You know, it hurts a lot during the day. But on the main injury is in my heart.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Colon, your client faces seven years in prison for charges that we talked about. Reckless endangerment, possession of a wild animal. How do you possibly defend a case like this where the tiger was taken out of his apartment? I mean, it was there.
RAYMOND COLON, YATES' ATTORNEY: Well generally most crimes have an intent element. With the issue of the charge of reckless endangerment, what you have is some sort of disregard for a potential serious injury or death.
But in this case, I think anybody who's viewing this on the facts is going to be able to tell almost immediately that Mr. Yates is a very caring man, he's very methodical, he's thoughtful. This cat, this large cat, this tiger who's actually a brother to him, was at no time a danger to the public or anybody else in that housing authority.
And if he was, then certainly you would think that neighbors and tenants would have alerted the authorities or the housing authority would have known about it. But Mr. Yates took such meticulous care and was so careful to control the tiger's behavior and environment that no one was injured other than himself when his kitten ran out from behind him and the instincts of the tiger kicked in.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Yates, we don't have a ton of time. I just want to ask you one quick question. There are some who say if you truly loved animals like you describe yourself and you describe yourself as heart broken, you never would have thought about keeping a tiger in an apartment. That you would have said roam free, have lots of space and acreage. How do you answer people who say that?
YATES: I answer them like this: I've just recently seen a show, matter of fact last night, and there was other people that claim that they love animals, that had the acreage, that had the license -- the USDA license.
These cats was maimed. These cats was being dragged out dead. I mean they was four times as thin as my cat. The coats was pale. When you took a look at my cat, you could tell he was loved, he was in excellent condition.
The only fault that I had, that I didn't have the proper financial things to give him, the land to roam. But that was part of my journey. I mean, that was my essence of what I was trying to create, a paradise.
O'BRIEN: You had an alligator in there as well.
YATES: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: Were you planning on stacking the entire apartment with large animals?
YATES: No, no. As I say it was a temporary stock force. You know, because I recently looked in an investigation on some land. And just about this close from purchasing the land to the incident just happened. Like I said, my main thing and duty was to create a paradise, you know, a haven for us as people. Animals and plants which we often just get together and live as one.
O'BRIEN: Antoine Yates and Ray Colon, thanks for coming in and talk to us.
YATES: OK, thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: Best of luck with all your legal troubles ahead. We certainly appreciate your time this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
