PITTSBURGH -- Bob Steele has agonized since February about the attack his cougar made on a 9-year-old boy at the Pittsburgh Auto Show.
Facing a lawsuit by the boy's parents, loss of animal promotion business and misconceptions by the public, the Leesburg, Fla., resident had been silent since the incident on the advice of his lawyer.
But on Tuesday, Steele said too many erroneous stories were being spread about him and his beloved 130-pound cat, Tom-Tom, which was shot and killed during the attack.
'That incident was not vicious, I'm not a villain,' Steele said in a telephone interview from his Florida office. 'People all over the country have gotten the wrong impression. The kid was not killed. That was a great cat and no one can say I was not super careful with him.'
The boy spent several weeks in Allegheny General Hospital recovering from wounds suffered Feb. 13 when the cougar snapped its jaws around him. An off-duty policeman shot the cougar, saving the boy's life.
Steele claimed to have lost $30,000 worth of business since the incident near a Lincoln-Mercury display at the hall.
He made the comments as Edward Balzarini, lawyer for the parents of James Seals, indicated he would file a 'tresspass' suit against the cougar owner by the end of April.
In a deposition from Steele filed at the Allegheny County courthouse, the animal owner said he took all possible precautions with the cougar on the day of the mauling.
Steele was hired to use Tom-Tom as a promotion for cars by the Pittsburgh area Lincoln-Mercury Dealers Association and not by the Lincoln-Mercury division of Ford Motor Co.
