Soviet Trainer Has 17 Tigers Firmly by the Tail

To anyone who ever tried--and probably failed--to keep the family cat from shredding the living-room drapes, Nikolai Pavlenko is nothing short of a marvel.

As tiger tamer for the Moscow Circus (at the Sports Arena through Sunday), Pavlenko earns his kopecks by entering a wire-mesh cage infested by 17 Sumatran tigers of enormous poundage and musculature and possessed of temperaments devoted to the consumption of large quantities of flesh.

Pavlenko makes his tigers sit up, jump, walk on their hind legs, run an obstacle course, leap through hoops, leap through hoops that are on fire, run shoulder to shoulder, and much more.

The beasts do everything but a Rockettes’ imitation, and the suspicion arises that Pavlenko could train them for that, too, if he put his Ukrainian persistence to it.

All during the act, the tigers are roaring their disapproval and taking disemboweling swipes at the 45-year-old Pavlenko, who has spent 30 years training and performing with circus animals. He eschews the traditional whip and prefers voice control.

The tiger act ends the first part of a marvelous 2 1/2-hour show packed with jugglers, acrobats, clowns, dancing bears, high-wire aerialists, trick-riding horsemen and feats of strength and elegance.

After his show, Pavlenko, through an interpreter, explains that no trainer can be better than his tigers. Good tigers must be smart, aggressive and dedicated meat eaters, and they must respect and fear their trainer, who himself must never show fear.

Has he ever been injured?

“Da.” He pulls back his sleeve and shows a reporter a recent puncture wound from a cub in training.

Has he ever been seriously injured?

“Da.” He pulls back his sleeve and shows a reporter a series of bite marks up his right arm leading to a mass of disfiguring scar tissue covering the lower shoulder.

So why does he continue working with tigers?

“Circus is not a job. Circus is life. Circus is real. In circus, there can be no fooling anybody. Circus is always young.”

Out of respect for his mentor, the famed Alexander Alexandrov-Fedotov, who gave him his first eight tigers, he declines to compare himself to other trainers. But he admits a longing to compete in the circus at Monte Carlo beside other trainers.

At his home in Moscow, does Pavlenko keep a house cat as a pet to remind him of his life’s devotion?

“Nyet.” A dog once, but never a cat.

“I do not want wild things in my house.”

Possible Trip East

Several schools in San Diego are in the running to be among 15 schools nationwide selected by NBC to be part of a “Youth Salutes the President” program upon the departure of President Reagan. A decision is expected next week.

Thieves at Every Turn

Thomas Simington, 16, isn’t necessarily given over to heroics, but when a woman ran out of a store this week in East San Diego yelling that her purse had just been stolen, Simington and two friends reacted without hesitation.

Simington; Mike Gerth, 18, and Patrick Jones, 15, chased the purse-snatcher for several blocks and over several fences. There was a tussle, then another, and more running, and finally the thief outran his pursuers.

Retracing their steps to the store, the youths discovered that the quick-footed and nimble-fingered snatcher had ditched the purse. Its owner was relieved.

But then Simington, a junior at Garfield High School, noticed something was missing: Someone had stolen his bicycle while he was in pursuit.

“Once we got started, we just did not want to lose that guy,” Simington said. “Next time I think I’ll yell for somebody to watch my bike, though.”