An illegally kept big cat is rescued by the police during a traffic stop – and then drugs are found in its blood.
Cincinnati – It sounds like an episode from the Netflix series Tiger King, but the sad reality is that a drug-addicted cat flees from the police during a traffic stop. A wildcat in Cincinnati, USA, was lucky once again when its owner was checked by officials at the end of January. The illegally kept animal was able to escape from the vehicle and climb a tree. Why is happiness? Well, the cat wasn’t doing so well. She had cocaine in her blood and needed medical attention.
USA: Illegal big cat escaped on drugs at traffic stop
After the fleeing cat of prey, a serval, was rescued from the treetop by the notified emergency services, it was taken to the municipal animal shelter. During the routine initial examination, the animal rights activists made a disturbing discovery: the cat had drugs in its blood. In this way, the animal could be helped appropriately.
It turned out that the cat named Amiry had cocaine in his blood. This is why the serval has achieved some notoriety on the internet under the name “Cocaine Cat”. The police had previously received calls from people saying that a leopard was sitting in a tree. Well, it wasn’t that big of a predator after all. But the feral cat looked very restless and disturbed to Cincinnati Animal CARE officials. No wonder, because the animal was not only in an emergency situation, it was also under the influence of drugs.
USA: Drugs were found in the cat’s blood at the shelter
The Cincinnati shelter where Amiry was eventually placed has now had a standard narcotics screen for new arrivals since a capuchin monkey was found to have amphetamines in its blood the year before. Servals are medium-sized wild cats that typically live as hunters on the African steppes. They have light-colored fur with dark spots, long legs, and large ears, and are considered quite dangerous. Keeping them is therefore also illegal.
One of the Cincinnati Animal CARE employees who secured Amiry told the TV station Local 12that the wildcats could have killed them too. Instead, Amiry suffered a broken leg himself at the rescue station when he fell from the branch. It is still unclear whether the animal was given the drug intentionally or whether it was an “accident”. In a statement from the animal protection authority, it was said loudly CNN: “Given the nature of his capture, we cannot currently say if this is intentional or environmental.”
“Cocaine cat” in the USA: It is unclear whether the drugs were deliberately administered to the animal
Means: It is not clear whether the big cat accidentally ate the drugs or whether it was forced to do so. It was also not possible to determine how much of the substance Amiry had consumed. The serval was treated by animal rights activists and then handed over to the Cincinnati Zoo because animal shelters are not designed for big cats. The former owner of the animal was loud CNN cooperative and paid for all costs incurred up to the handover to the zoo. Shots were fired at cats in a community in Bavaria, and one animal had to be put down. (Caroline Gehrman)
