UPDATE: Man arrested for possessing exotic wild cats
In a follow up to our article yesterday about the man being arrested ‘in possession of exotic mixed wild cats;, Junie Kovacs, the Founder of the Lanta Animal Welfare has sent The Thaiger an update, saying…
“Even though members from Lanta Animal Welfare and wild life officers tried to convince the man that it would be best to sterilise the kittens, he refused.”
This is yesterday’s story….
A man has been arrested after being found in possession of mixed protected wild cats which, authorities claim, are very ‘fierce’.
Officers went to a house in Koh Lanta, Krabi after they were notified that a man was keeping protected Leopard Cats.
A male three year old Leopard Cat weighing two kilograms were found inside a big cage at the house. 33 year old Supakdee Sangkhao said he was the the owner of the cat.
Officers also found a female Bengal Cat and 17 kittens walking around the house. Officers believe the kittens are a mixture of Leopard Cat and Bengal Cat.
Supakdee has also been charged with illegal possession of protected animals.
Supakdee says, “Local people gave me this Leopard Cat since it was very young. A European tourist gave me the Bangal Cat. I didn’t know that keeping them was illegal.”
The mixture of these two wild cat cat breeds are very popular amongst people who like cats. They are quite large and have fur like tiger. They cost from ten thousands to hundred thousand baht. Police suspect that Supakdee was breeding the cats commercially and are conducting further investigations.
