Missing Tiger in Houston Has Been Found Safe and Healthy
The saga of the missing tiger found roaming the streets in a Houston neighborhood, appears to be over. The Bengal tiger was found on Saturday and transferred to the proper officials.
The nine-month-old tiger named India appears to be in good health, according to Houston Police Commander Ron Borza. Animal control officials will be delivering the tiger to an animal sanctuary on Sunday.
Borza identified the owner of the tiger as Victor Hugo Cuevas, who is facing a charge of evading arrest after police say he fled officers who were responding to a call about a dangerous animal last Sunday. Cuevas was arrested Monday for that charge and was released Wednesday.
Cuevas was then taken into custody on Friday after a judge revoked his bond on a pending murder charge. That stems from a pending, unrelated murder charge from 2017. He is currently in jail in Fort Bend County, Texas, on a $300,000 bond.
At a court hearing for that separate case, Cuevas' attorney, Michael Elliott, said his client does not own the tiger. He added that he only knew the first name of the owner and that he's been working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to find India, and that his client only wanted the tiger to be safe.
As to who had the tiger and turned it in, that is still a bit confusing.
However, Elliott said the tiger was recovered after Cuevas' wife received a phone call, on her husband's phone, from the person who had the tiger. After some discussions about how the animal could be surrendered anonymously, that handover took place at a tennis club around 6:00 pm last night.
"This has a good ending," said Elliott. "Things could have went really wrong and they didn't, and I said the animal is, is in a good safe place now, is healthy, and has been returned."
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