Roaming tigers may be leashed by state
Lawmakers were already on the prowl to prohibit tigers as pets in Texas as a weed-smoking 311 caller happened upon an exotic feline locked up at a Houston home.
The woman behind the 350pound find Monday believed the tiger was someone’s pet and she wanted to help it, according to a transcript of her call to city officials.
“I was just wondering if I could make an anonymous call for that — to get that tiger safe,” she said.
A bill introduced on Feb 5. could do the same for all exotic animals. The legislation would tighten restrictions on owning “dangerous wild animals,” including tigers, chimpanzees, gorillas, leopards and lions. Under current Texas law, it’s not illegal to own a pet tiger, though there are a number of requirements, including state-issued permits and insurance.
Senate Bill 641 by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, and House Bill 1268 by state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, would make tiger ownership punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The bill makes exceptions for wildlife sanctuaries, research facilities and individuals with certain agriculture licenses.
It’s already illegal to own tigers in Houston, according to city offi-
cials.
The origin of the camerafriendly tiger stashed inside a foreclosed Manchester house is not yet known. Authorities are still looking for its owner, according to police spokeswoman Jodi Silva.
The property was recently sold after it became the subject of a tax delinquency suit in 2016. The former owner, John G. Wiese, died in 2008.
Learning about the cat
Details from the good Samaritan’s nervous 311 call offered few hints about who was storing the tiger — other than to say she and a friend apparently met someone who fed the tiger at the run-down house in the 9400 block of E. Avenue J.
“I was with one of my friends and we met this guy who knows this guy,” she said. “He was like, oh, ‘I need to go to my house to feed my tiger.’”
The home had the look of a “crack house,” she said.
“The house is like abandoned, like he’s fixing it up right now, but he has the tiger in there,” she said, pinpointing the feline’s location in a back room at the building.
A large male tiger is exactly what a BARC and HPD officer found when they entered the home with a search warrant.
A transcript of the noon call to the city’s 311 service made no mention of her plans to smoke pot. That was divulged when police officers contacted her later, Silva said.
The beast rescued from the home is now in the care of a North Texas wildlife refuge pending the outcome of an investigation into its ownership.
“How do you even get a pet tiger?” wondered the dispatcher who handled the 311 call.
People were asking the same thing in 2016, when a young female tiger wearing a leash was found wandering in a neighborhood in Conroe. It jumped up and licked the face of a resident who approached it.
After the latest tiger incident, Houston lawmakers expressed support for the state legislation.
Do you have one now?
“A tiger was found in my #SD6 neighborhood of Manchester,” state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, tweeted Tuesday.
“We need further legislation against wild animal possession to protect both the animals & our citizens.”
If the legislation passes, however, Texans who already lawfully own tigers or other dangerous wild animals would be allowed to keep them.
Anyone with information about the owner of the found tiger is asked to call the Animal Cruelty Division with HPD’s Major Offenders at (713) 308-3100.