I do worry about that -- but I don't think tigers are generally social, outside of mating? At least not more than casually/passing through. The news story did seem pretty clear that he's not bonded to any humans: the "owner" claims he's a pet, but Tony doesn't live at the "owner's" residence, and the man not only has numerous charges laid against him in the past for failure to provide basic care to his animals, he's also had tigers seized from his possession.

Less clear, but suggestive, is the mention that Tony "has been alone since 2003", which would be seven-eight years ago; considering that he's stated to be ten years old, it sounds like he may have had company for the first two years of his life. (Siblings? A parent?)

From what I know about BigCatRescue, who has offered to house Tony, they've got pretty good big cat enclosures. (I've never been there or anything, but I have been aware of them for several years and have seen videos/other success cases.) Hopefully they'll know how to go about introducing Tony to the idea of tiger neighbours, when he arrives! :D

And yeah, I hear you with the theoretically thing. Alas, this guy doesn't even seem interested in lip service to the idea, much less actually being qualified. D: Anything's got to be better than that.