Missing pet tiger found safe in Houston

Days after a tiger was first spotted roaming a west Houston neighbourhood before evading capture, the big cat has been found.

Houston police announced late Saturday that the nine-month-old Bengal tiger was turned in to authorities and appeared to be in good health. A video posted to Twitter showed police commander Ron Borza petting the 175-pound tiger named India. India was wearing a bedazzled collar as a woman embraced him and fed him from a bottle.

“We got him and he’s healthy,” Borza says in the clip, after noting that it had been a long week of searching for the animal.

About a week earlier, the pet was seen jumping over backyard fences and roaming front lawns — a sight that shocked neighbours.

The tiger, police allege, belonged to 26-year-old Victor Hugo Cuevas, who faces charges in a 2017 murder and was out on bond ahead of the trial.

The cat was spotted on a residential street in west Houston, and bystanders took pictures and videos. One off-duty sheriff’s deputy tried to corral the animal. By the time authorities arrived to a home Cuevas was renting, police said, witnesses saw the man load the tiger into a Jeep and drive off. Cuevas was arrested the following day, but the search for the tiger continued.

Then, authorities got a call about noon on Saturday. A “concerned citizen,” who police said was a friend of Cuevas’s wife, Gia, contacted officials at BARC, the city of Houston’s animal shelter. The friend said Gia, who police say owned the animal, wanted to turn the tiger over to authorities. Police then helped get the tiger to the shelter.

A Houston city ordinance bans the ownership of tigers and other wild animals, while Texas is one of a few places in the country with both lax regulations on exotic-animal ownership and a climate hospitable to such animals. Police said Saturday that no charges had yet been filed.

The tiger was to be picked up by the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, an animal sanctuary in Murchison, Texas.

“They’re going to take the tiger, and it will be amongst other tigers and it will be in a very good environment,” Borza said.

IT WILL BE AMONGST OTHER TIGERS AND IT WILL BE IN A VERY GOOD ENVIRONMENT.