Lemur buyer charged with animal cruelty
A San Antonio woman has been charged with animal cruelty after she allegedly bought illegal lemurs online and kept them caged in her backyard, resulting in the death of one of the animals, court documents said.
Kristy Lee Arredondo, 35, was charged with two counts of animal cruelty.
In December, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy searched on Tiktok for “exotic animals San Antonio” and found a video showing two ring-tailed lemurs in a residential backyard. The video, uploaded by the user @alexiss.m4, showed the lemurs in a black cage surrounded by dogs.
Owning a lemur is prohibited in Bexar County.
The video tagged another user called Alamo City Frenchie Cartel, a dog breeding business co-owned by Arredondo, an affidavit supporting her arrest said.
When investigators from the Sheriff ’s Office and Animal Care Services conducted a welfare check in the 6500 block of Ithaca Forest on the Northeast Side, they found one lemur in a cage and one dead and decomposing in the alley behind the property.
Arredondo told investigators that the lemurs had been fighting, leaving one injured, the affidavit said. She said she gave the lemur antibiotics meant for dogs and that it died a week later. Investigators were unable to access records to determine whether Arredondo tried to take the injured lemur to a veterinarian before it died.
Arredondo said the lemur was put in the alley instead of the backyard so the dogs wouldn’t dig it up, the affidavit said.
The Sheriff’s Office described the lemur’s cage as an “unsanitary and inadequate” dog run with plywood for the roof and a floor that was partially covered in square stepping stones with some grass and dirt inside, the affidavit said. There was little water and old, wilting food for the lemur.
Investigators said the lemur in the cage appeared to be “depressed, lethargic and malnourished,” the affidavit said.
There were also at least 13 dogs on the property.
Arredondo told deputies that she bought the lemurs just after Halloween for $3,000 from a man on Facebook Marketplace and that she thought owning lemurs was legal in Texas. The transaction took place at the San Marcos Buc-ee’s.
The lemurs were taken to Primarily Primates, a nonprofit primate sanctuary in Bexar County.
Animal specialists at Primarily
Primates were unable to determine the cause of death for the deceased lemur because of its advanced decomposition. They placed the time of death at about a month ago, the affidavit said.
The remaining lemur, which the specialists named Luna, was underweight, severely malnourished and deeply depressed. The estimated cost of the case is expected to exceed $1,000.
On Jan. 11, Arredondo appeared via Zoom for a hearing with Animal Care Services. She relinquished custody of Luna to Primarily Primates and paid restitution for her care.
Arredondo was arrested Monday and was being held on $30,000 bail.