A couple in France paid $10k for a hybrid Savannah kitten, only to discover that it was actually a tiger cub.
Imagine spending ten grand on a kitten, only to discover you’ve accidentally bought a tiger cub?
That’s exactly what happened to a french couple from Le Havre, who forked out almost $10,000 (AUD) two years ago for what they thought was a Savannah cat.
The couple purchased the animal back in 2018 after coming across an online ad for a Savannah cat, which is a cross between a wild African serval cat and a domestic cat. Savannah cats, unlike tigers, are legal to own in France.
Arriving to pick up the cat, the couple failed to realise that the seller was in fact carrying a three-month-old tiger from Indonesia. The tiger in question, a Sumatran tiger, is critically endangered, with fewer than 400 left around the globe. When the couple began to suspect that what they had purchased was in fact not a cat, they called the police, who in turn launched an investigation.
Savannah cat. #ER #cats #patients #beautiful 🐾 pic.twitter.com/oV6bIevctJ
— Lauren (@Laurenpkat) October 12, 2020
Now, after two years, the investigation, led by the Regional Intervention Group of the National Police and the Departmental Security, has come to a finish. According to France Bleu, nine people have been arrested in relation to the big cat (including the original couple), after it was traced back to an animal trafficking operation.
I guess the moral of the story is…don’t accidentally buy a tiger cub on the internet?
