Another twist to tiger’s tale before move
Nahla, found roaming Conroe streets, target of early morning theft attempt
CONROE — This is a town passionate about its Tigers, the ones who compete under Moorhead Stadium’s lights on Friday nights every fall.
But even Conroe High School’s football team hasn’t generated as much interest as the tale of the tiger cub recently found wandering the city’s streets following last week’s floods.
Nahla was moved Wednesday to a sanctuary near Fort Worth but not before a custody hearing and an apparent attempt to steal the Bengal tiger from the city’s animal shelter.
Police said a masked man with chain cutters in hand broke into the shelter with the intent of taking Nahla at about 5:40 a.m., just hours before the big cat’s scheduled move, marking the strangest twist to the weeklong drama.
The man — wearing a camouflage jacket, black shirt and pants and gloves — left after being unable to gain entry into the area holding the tiger, surveillance video showed.
Conroe police Lt. Dorcy
McGinnis said it’s unclear how long the man was in the shelter, but he was gone before the first employees arrived at about 6:30 a.m.
It was the first time someone had tried to break in to the facility for abandoned and abused animals, McGinnis said.
“This is a unique case,” she said.
The attempted theft of Nahla delayed her 250-mile trip by an hour or so, but she arrived at about 1 p.m. at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary, which is home to bears, bobcats, cougars, jaguars, lions and tigers, among other animals. Louis Dorfman, the sanctuary’s chairman and animal behaviorist, said the young tiger appeared to be in good health. She ate well and played with balls and bones in her own quarter-acre pen on the 50acre property.
“It’s a bigger area than she’s ever been (in),” Dorfman said. “But she is adjusting well. She isn’t nervous.” Up to counties
While there are plenty of oddities in Nahla’s case, she took a typical path to the sanctuary, which has added six tigers in the past six months, Dorfman said. They are usually found roaming neighborhoods or taken from owners who don’t follow registration or insurance requirements.
And zoos often won’t take the animals because they were born in captivity with unknown bloodlines.
There are few statewide regulations in Texas for owning “dangerous wild animals,” such as lions, tigers and bears. It’s generally up to individual cities and counties to decide whether to ban them as pets.
A bill was filed last year to strengthen regulation of wild animals but didn’t advance beyond a state House committee. Some state and local officials raised concerns over the cost of enforcing the law. The Harris County Sheriff’s Department, for one, said it would cost $480,000, including the hiring of five additional staff members, training and equipment, to comply with the bill for the current fiscal year.
Conroe, some 40 miles north of downtown Houston, prohibits residents from keeping or harboring one in the city, but surrounding Montgomery County doesn’t.
Conroe police captured Nahla last Thursday after she was spotted roaming near League Line Road and Longmire Road, on the city’s far north side. She was wearing a collar and a leash.
Humble resident Cody Tibbitts told KHOU that he recently bought Nahla but was still trying to get his ownership in order. The cub got loose while he was trying to move her during last week’s flooding, he said.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” said Tibbitts, who couldn’t be reached for comment for this story. Houston Zoo consulted
After a 30-minute hearing Tuesday, Conroe Municipal Court Judge Michael Davis awarded temporary custody of the tiger to the city, with the understanding that the animal would be moved to the sanctuary. Tibbitts had asked for the tiger to go to the Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge, a preserve for big cats near Tyler.
McGinnis said the city picked the North Texas sanctuary, among many offering to take the tiger, after consulting with the Houston Zoo and Houston SPCA. Conroe also was approached by refuges in California, Colorado, Florida and New York, she said.
And the case piqued the interest of several national media outlets, including CNN, the Associated Press and Reuters.
“I wish that we had this help when we’re working an important homicide,” McGinnis said. “But it shows people who care about animals are very passionate.”