This image supplied by New York’s Bronx Zoo shows an 11-thirty day period-outdated, 80-pound cougar that was taken off from an condominium in the Bronx the place she was being stored illegally as a pet, animal welfare officers mentioned Monday. The cougar, nicknamed Sasha, invested the weekend at the Bronx Zoo obtaining veterinary care and is now headed to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, officials explained. (Courtesy of The Bronx Zoo through AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — An 80-pound cougar was removed from a New York Town apartment exactly where she was staying held illegally as a pet, animal welfare officers said Monday.
The operator of the 11-month-aged female cougar surrendered the animal on Thursday, Kelly Donithan, director of animal disaster response for the Humane Modern society of the United States, claimed in a news release.
The cougar, nicknamed Sasha, invested the weekend at the Bronx Zoo receiving veterinary care and is now headed to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, officers claimed.
The Humane Culture coordinated with zoo officers, the condition Division of Environmental Conservation and the New York Law enforcement Section on the huge cat’s removing.
“I’ve by no means viewed a cougar in the wild, but I have observed them on leashes, smashed into cages, and crying for their moms when breeders rip them away,” the Humane Society’s Donithan mentioned. “I’ve also noticed the heartbreak of owners, like in this case, following currently being sold not just a wild animal, but a wrong aspiration that they could make a superior ‘pet.’”
Donithan explained this cougar was fairly lucky since her proprietors, who live in the Bronx, recognized that a wild cat is not healthy to reside in an apartment and surrendered her.
“The owner’s tears and anxious chirps from the cougar as we drove her away painfully drives household the lots of victims of this horrendous trade and myth that wild animals belong anyplace but the wild,” Donithan stated.
Division of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos claimed that whilst cougars “may appear sweet and cuddly when younger, these animals can improve up to be unpredictable and perilous.”
Bronx Zoo director Jim Breheny said the exotic pet trade tends to make no contribution to the conservation of endangered species.
“These animals generally end up in very bad predicaments, retained by private individuals who really do not have the means, services, understanding, or know-how to supply for the animals’ most simple requirements,” Breheny reported. “In addition to these welfare concerns for the animals, the maintaining of significant cats by non-public individuals poses a genuine protection hazard to the owner, the owner’s family and the local community at substantial.”
New York has observed other notable situations involving unsafe animals in non-public residences, together with Ming, a 400-pound tiger that was eliminated from a Harlem condominium in 2003.
Ming’s owner, Antoine Yates, was arrested and sentenced to five months in prison for reckless endangerment. Ming died in 2019 at the Noah’s Misplaced Ark Exotic Animal Rescue Centre in Ohio.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea stated the cougar’s circumstance “is at this time underneath investigation and no even further info is offered at this time.”
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