Ringling Bros. back in NYC after years-long hiatus — but without iconic circus animals: ‘Worse than separating from my wife’

nypost.com:

out of jobs. Among them was Tabajara Maluenda, now 53, who had made a big-top name for himself as the man who could tame tigers, elephants and horses.

He loved the animals, loved the accolades and loved life as an animal trainer and performer for Ringling Bros. “It was extraordinary,” said Maluenda, who began with the circus in 2004, of life on the road with his wife and two kids. “We traveled as a family, living in the circus’s trailer.

Ringling Bros. provided a teacher, on tour with us, to teach the children.” The kids also grew up alongside tigers Hercules, Princess and Shakira.“My son and daughter helped raise the cubs,” said Maluenda. “The tigers were like family.

The children played with them in the pool. In the morning, the kids would feed the cubs from bottles of milk mixed with meat.” But once the circus shut down, the elephants, horses, tigers, lions, camels and zebras that had been part of it were sent to sanctuaries around the country.“It broke my heart,” Maluenda told The Post. “It broke me into pieces.