Woman apprehended 15 months after tiger found
An Atascosa woman was arrested Thursday when she was stopped in connection with an apparent migrant smuggling operation and nearly 15 months after officials found a tiger cub in a tiny enclosure on her property.
Augustina Jean Cabrera, 50, was arrested Thursday on a charge of felony animal cruelty and is being held on $5,000 bail.
Bexar County deputies were called to Cabrera’s home in the 1800 block of Primo Street on Feb. 13, 2021, after an anonymous caller reported hearing a tiger’s cry coming from a neighbor’s property, an affidavit supporting Cabrera’s arrest said.
Deputies found a female tiger cub in a 10by-10-foot enclosure, which was next to a pen with two dogs. Temperatures outside were nearing freezing that day, the affidavit said.
At the time, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the tiger appeared to be no more than 2 years old and that it had been declawed and was wearing a harness.
“This was a pretty decent-sized cat,” Salazar said in February 2021. “An animal like that just doesn’t belong in a neighborhood or in a makeshift cage somebody made in their backyard.”
When deputies questioned Cabrera, she said the tiger belonged to a man named Josh, who was with her son in California. She told investigators she had been feeding the tiger
chicken.
Although an arrest warrant for Cabrera was issued April 22, 2021, she was not arrested on the animal cruelty charge until she was stopped Thursday
by deputies who were conducting multiple traffic stops in Southwest Bexar County that led to the apprehension of about 40 migrants in what appears to be a smuggling operation. Deputies suspect she was in the area to pick up a driver who fled from one of those stops.
Southern Wildlife Rehab took custody of the tiger, which is a prohibited species in Bexar County.
A veterinarian later told investigators the tiger had mild lameness in her left hind leg, the affidavit said. A wildlife expert from the San Antonio Zoo told investigators unsuitable confinement, lack of proper stimulation, unsanitary conditions and an inappropriate diet can be detrimental to a tiger’s mental and physical health.
The expert said the conditions the tiger was being kept in may have lasting effects on her health.