Janice Haley’s Tigers: Janda and Saber, Two Bengal Tigers in Florida

In the back garden of her home in Orlando, Florida, Janice Haley shared her days with two Bengal tigers: Janda, an orange female of about 181 kg, and Saber, a white male of about 272 kg. A 2014 video and photo story about the pair, fed by hand and washed several times a day, made her briefly famous around the world.

How an Orlando office worker came to keep tigers

Haley’s path to tigers began in 1994, when she answered a newspaper advertisement for a tiger training course. Her first tiger was named Chuffer. Janda joined her in 2002, and after Chuffer died she bought Saber as a companion for Janda. She later left her job as an administrative assistant to spend her time outdoors with the cats.

She described the tigers as her “big four-legged furry kids” and said they “pretty much look at me as being their mother.” The tigers lived in large enclosures and were fed horse meat by hand. According to Haley, Saber could not fall asleep without sucking on her fingers.

Bengal tigers: size, range and wild numbers

The Bengal tiger is the tiger of the Indian subcontinent, found in India, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and southwestern China. Adult males typically weigh 200–260 kg and females 110–180 kg, so Saber and Janda sit at the heavy end of the normal range.

India holds most of the world’s wild Bengal tigers. Its 2022 tiger estimate put the population at 3,167–3,682 animals. The species is classed as Endangered in India, Nepal and Bhutan and Critically Endangered in Bangladesh and China.

Saber the white tiger: what makes the coat white

White tigers are not albinos or a separate species. They are usually Bengal tigers carrying two copies of a recessive mutation in the SLC45A2 gene, which blocks the red and yellow pigment that makes an ordinary tiger orange. They keep their black stripes and usually have blue eyes.

In the wild a white cub appears roughly once in 10,000 births, and the last known wild white tiger was shot in 1958. Many white tigers in captivity descend from Mohan, a white male captured by the Maharaja of Rewa in 1951. Breeding for the colour has meant heavy inbreeding, linked to crossed eyes, spinal and kidney problems and low fertility, so accredited US zoos (AZA) do not breed for white tigers.

Private tigers and US law today

When Haley’s story spread, keeping big cats privately was legal in some US states. In 2022 Congress passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which amended the Lacey Act: it requires owners of tigers, lions and other large cats to be licensed and bans public petting of big cats and their cubs. A tiger raised by people is still a powerful wild animal, and the safest place to meet one is across a barrier at an accredited zoo or sanctuary.

Video: Florida woman keeps Bengal tigers in her garden

Video: Florida Woman Keeps Bengal Tigers In Her Garden (published by truly). For other stories of people living alongside big animals, see this captive-bear film and a cheetah and dog raised together.

Related reading

• Tiger-Killing Reports: Keep the Case and the Context Clear
• Casey Anderson and Brutus: The Bear Behind Montana Grizzly Encounter
• Doug Seus and His Trained Bears: The Film and Its Context
• Mark Dumas and Agee: A Polar-Bear Filming Relationship
• A Young Squirrel Brought Indoors: The Rescue Photo Sequence

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