A male Bengal tiger was spotted walking through a Mexican suburb on Tuesday. Photo / Screenshot
A male Bengal tiger was spotted walking through a Mexican suburb on Tuesday. Photo / Screenshot
A fully grown male Bengal tiger is not something you expect to see prowling the streets. Especially in the middle of Tecuala, Mexico.
Residents of the town bordering Sinaloa and Nayarit were shocked to see the big cat, which was caught on video prowling the street on Tuesday.
A mother can be heard telling her screaming child to "Shut up!"
"It's not going to do anything to you, it's on the other side of the street," she says of the tiger.
Sure enough, a man, presumably its handler, can be seen looking for the animal. Relieved he puts it back on a leash and the 200kg tiger walks home willingly.
The tiger's owner apparently came to claim him from the Mexican street. Photo / Screenshot
Presumably the animal had escaped from a private zoo rather than the wilds of northern India. This part of Mexico is notorious for its exotic animal trade and the fashion for cartels to own dangerous pets.
The Daily Mail reported that adverts for tiger cubs could be found for as little as US$25.
The tiger wasn't the strangest or most tragic incident involving animals belonging to drug gangs in central Mexico. Police in Nayarit released photos of a capuchin monkey in a tiny bullet-proof vest, which had been killed during a shootout.
The animal and eleven gang members had been killed in a shootout in Michoacán state. The photos confirmed for the Guardian by the State of Mexico showed the dead animal mascot had a gang uniform made in miniature.
The monkey was among the victims of a shoot out last week in Nayarit, central Mexico. Photo / Dirección de Seguridad Pública Municipal
"A primate was killed at the scene, which was presumably owned by a criminal who was also killed at the scene," said the police statement.
Exotic animals are kept as a status symbol by many cartels and drug kingpins. This has caused problems for law enforcement who don't know what to do with the exotic, sometimes dangerous animals when their owners are arrested.
In 2011 Mexico reported 5,500 illegal animals had been seized from the private zoos of drug cartels.
A statement from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said that they were aware of Mexican tiger farms breeding cubs in captivity.
Talking to Aljazeera PETA spokesperson said that many of the owners and breeders from "disreputable roadside zoos" don't care much for the wellbeing of the big cats.
"It does not surprise me that traffickers are feeding their competitors to animals in private zoos," said the spokesperson.
Confiscated animals pose a problem to authorities. Some exotic animals are protected against being euthanised, and they struggle to find enough accredited zoos to rehome the creatures.
Many of the drug traffickers and cartels see large cats as status symbols in the fashion of the Colombian drug lords of the 80s.
Famously Pablo Escobar's personal zoo in Puerto Triunfo was left in disrepair following its seizure and the area is now overrun by hippos and other exotic animals which escaped from the park.
