A pet tiger caused an uproar in Conroe, just 40 miles north of Houston. As of now, it is technically legal to own a pet tiger in the state of Texas.
As its owner took the tiger to a friend’s location in Harris County rescue farm, the recipient was not able to contain the animal and a flash flood forced it to run away. Thankfully, the feline was tame enough so there weren’t any potentially dangerous encounters.
The female tiger was spotted by Erin Poole and Jonathan Gessner. They were driving by and Poole saw “something run into the bushes, it was really big.” Gessner then got off the car with the intention of capturing the animal since he had seen its leash. When Gessner approached the tiger, it acted friendly and they started playing right there on the street.
Running tiger
“When it started running toward me and it jumped on me and started licking me in the face, I started playing with it and petting it and everything,” Gessner commented.
Bystanders called the police at 11:50am, arguing that they have seen a tiger wandering Coral Cove pass, in the proximity of League Line Road and Longmire Road.
Authorities came to the place of the events, captured the tiger and sent her to a local animal shelter. They found out that she had been declawed. Although tigers are classified as a “dangerous animal” in Texas, there are no regulations that prohibit having one as a pet. In fact, one would have to obtain a license that is not difficult to get, but there are laws concerning “dangerous animals” inside the city of Conroe, so the events are not of complete legality if the tiger and its owner live within the city.
According to a man identified only as “Cody,” who appears to be the tiger’s owner, the feline was named Nala and she is four to five months old. The tiger’s owner and his friend may face charges on the matter.
Reportedly, there are at least 5,000 wild tigers held in cages as pets or attractions in America, but roughly 3,000 are known to be free in the wild. There is a total of five states within the U.S. that do not sport any laws regarding people owning exotic pets. These states would be Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Source: Fox News