Terrifying video of a tiger collapsing in convulsions during a fire performance at the circus

Circus-goers found themselves helpless while watching a circus in Magnitogorsk, Russia. A tigress named Zena suddenly collapsed a few feet before the audience.

During a performance, the tigress was made to jump through hula hoops of fire. After collapsing, one of the trainers had to drag the animal to safety.

An audience didn’t expect what they saw when they went to watch a circus show by the brother-sister duo Artur and Karina Bagdasarov. A video showed Zena, a six-year-old tigress, suffering a medical emergency during the show.

The tigress suddenly collapsed during a routine and started convulsing on the side of the ring. Artur used a long stick as a whip to keep try and keep the other 6 performing tigers away from Zena.

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. Trying to wake the animal up, the trainer poured water over the tigress.

Then he dragged the animal away by its tail. The pair has since been accused of animal cruelty but has defended themselves with Karina saying:

"Artur did his best to bring Zena back to her senses and he did all the right things - he touched her reflexive zones, he poured water on her. The main thing was to stop other animals from attacking. For them a weak animal is a target, it is an order to kill.”

She explained that if they hadn’t stopped the other tigers, things might have ended on a worse note. Zena eventually came to as more water was poured on her after she suffered what was believed to be an epileptic fit.

Artur also explained why he’d chosen to drag the animal away:

"I had to drag the animal away from the wire fence, she was about to fall between the stage and the wire. I dragged her to a safe place where there were no other tigers around.”

He also explained why he dragged Zena by the tail:

"So the tigress was away from spectators and away from other tigers. Why the tail? What else could I drag her by? She has claws on her paws. She is not a soft cat. I could not lift the whole tiger.”

He also revealed that he had shouted for the music and microphones to be turned off during Zena's fit. When the animal woke up, the crowd cheered with relief.

Larissa, a spectator who had taken her two children to the circus said:

"When the tiger was convulsing, spectators laughed. When the animal defecated, it became clear it was an attack of an illness.”

She also added that the trainers never used stun guns and that Artur only used his whip on the floor to calm down the other tigers.

In another story, a Sumatran tiger named Kaitlyn gave birth while zookeepers watched over at the Australia Zoo. The tigress gave birth to her first twin cub that appeared to be struggling to breathe.

For two long minutes the mother licked the cub lovingly until it started breathing properly then she gave birth to her second healthy twin.