Is There A Tiger On The Loose In Rochester, New York?

We've had a lot of weird news around Western New York lately. Whether it's a star football player pranking the whole region to think he was leaving the area to all sorts of randomness, there has been no shortage of strange things to discuss in the 716 and 585. That is until a social media post on Facebook started making its rounds all over the region.

According to Facebook user Vito Martinez, a tiger is on the loose in Monroe County, New York, and it has been scaring joggers.

Imagine the surprise you would find if you were jogging around the greater Rochester area and a more than 400-pound Bengal tiger was lying around waiting to say hi to you.

According to this social media post, the purported tiger was seen around in the mid-afternoon on Thursday, March 14, 2024, while someone was jogging—the person who was able to take pictures of the relaxing tiger before running for their life. The post also says that the Rochester Police Department and Rochester Wild Life are on the lookout for the privately owned tiger.

As a proud Buffalo State Bengal, I'm used to seeing paused Bengals in the middle of the day, but this takes that to a new level.

After communicating with various authorities in the Rochester area and doing a quick Google Images Search, you'll quickly figure out that this is not actually true.

While plenty of cougars may be roaming around on Chippewa on Friday night, Rochester does not have tigers on the loose.