VIGIL PROTESTS TIGER SHOOTING.

Byline: Angie Valencia-Martinez and Eric Leach Staff Writers

MOORPARK - Hundreds of people lit candles and sang ``The tiger sleeps tonight'' in a sunset vigil Friday near the spot where a tiger was shot to death after weeks of roaming the hills near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Some in the crowd dressed in tiger costumes or came with faces painted like the exotic cat. Others carried candles shaped like tiger heads or large, stuffed tiger toys. And an orange-and-black-striped cross and flower arrangements featuring tiger lilies were left near the spot where the tiger died Wednesday morning.

At one spot was a tiger mask with a sign that read, ``No Brain. All Brawn. Killing the Cat was Wrong.''

``I'm heartbroken. I'm angry. I'm disappointed. I lost faith in the human race,'' said Dorann La Perch, a Moorpark woman there with her 80- year-old mother, Mildred, in a wheelchair.

The vigil, attended by about 400, drew people from throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties, many who mourned the big cat that was shot as it ran through the chaparral-covered hills between Highway 23 and Miller Park, where Friday's event was held.

The tiger was shot Wednesday morning after more than a week of searching by California Department of Fish and Game officers and federal trackers who had spotted hundreds of the animal's paw prints between the Reagan Library and the outskirts of Camarillo.

Federal Department of Agriculture officers shot the cat after authorities determined that it would be too dangerous to use a tranquilizer gun, said Fish and Game officials who supervised the operation.

At Friday's vigil, Dawn Lowenberg of Moorpark called the wildlife officials ``trigger-happy.''

Linda Hines-Slattery of Simi Valley blamed the animal's owners for not helping in its capture.

``But (the California Department of) Fish and Game did not give the tiger a chance. Two wrongs don't make a right.''

Two Moorpark College students, Christian Fiscus, 19, and Andrew Onderstal, 18, expressed an opposing point of view, carrying signs saying ``Why don't you cry about something important?'' and ``How many died in Iraq today? Where's their candles?''

``People need to put some perspective on it,'' said Fiscus.

Earlier Friday, local government leaders and law enforcement officials gathered in Thousand Oaks at a meeting held by state Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, to help answer questions over the tiger's death.

Fish and Game officials announced partial results of an examination of the dead tiger, saying it weighed 352 pounds, instead of more than 400 as they believed before. Yet it was not emaciated with hunger, although its stomach was virtually empty, they said.

It did have fur in its intestines, indicating that it had eaten something recently, said Mike Wintemute, who attended Strickland's meeting.

``We're getting hundreds of calls from the public about how this was handled,'' Wintemute said. ``But we feel this was a successful operation. No one was hurt. ... That (tiger) was a significant threat to the community.''

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Hundreds held a vigil at Miller Park in Moorpark on Friday evening in remembrance of a roaming tiger that was killed by wildlife officials.

(2) Some who came to Friday's vigil at Miller Park over the shooting of a tiger dressed up in tiger costumes.

Joel P. Lugavere/Special to the Daily News