Moscow’s fat cats hire tigers for New Year bashes
Russians are looking to go all out during the festive period, with some of Moscow’s most affluent residents putting in extravagant requests for exotic animals, including tigers, to make an appearance at their New Year bashes.
That’s according to the owners of Celebrity Booking Group, who revealed the most decadent orders for corporate and private parties in Rublyovka, the unofficial name of a group of elite residential communities in the capital’s western suburbs, to Komsomolskaya Pravda on Thursday.
Evgenia Dashkevich said the firm had received a surge in calls from well-heeled punters looking to get their claws on tigers for their end-of-year parties. She remarked that the agency had created several concepts to cater to their clients’ desires, including delivering a trainer and a big cat to customers' homes, offices, or country houses.
Another package is for a full-on circus show featuring the predator and famous performance artists. After the spectacle, customers can stroke and photograph the animals, with their safety supposedly guaranteed, so they can tell the tale to their friends.
“Experience shows interactions with trained predators under the supervision of a professional are a delight for children and successful businessmen alike,” Dashkevich told the outlet. Tigers are not the only exotic creatures the company advertises. Lion cubs, bears, monkeys, and parrots are also available for delivery.
Dashkevich and agency co-owner Vadim Kormilitsyn said they had no right to disclose the budgets of their clients. However, experts interviewed by Komsomolskaya Pravda estimated that the price tag for a tiger for a 20-30 minute home show can be as high as $20,300.
The agency advertised its “crazy offer” on Instagram earlier in December in a post showing two well-groomed men in suits standing beside a tiger.
“For all those who have racked their brains for what to gift their husband or child for their birthday, New Year, anniversary, or to increase their partner’s loyalty, please their friends, to fall in love with their dream man or to amaze a sophisticated boss, this post is for you,” the caption read.
Data from Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index published this summer revealed that the combined wealth of Russia’s richest has increased by a whopping $39.4 billion since the start of the year.
