An 80-pound cougar was eliminated from a New York City condominium exactly where she was becoming saved illegally as a pet, animal welfare officers stated Monday.

The owner of the 11-thirty day period-old woman cougar surrendered the animal on Thursday, Kelly Donithan, director of animal catastrophe reaction for the Humane Society of the United States, mentioned in a information release.

The cougar, nicknamed Sasha, invested the weekend at the Bronx Zoo acquiring veterinary treatment and is now headed to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, officers said.

The Humane Society coordinated with zoo officers, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York Police Section on the big cat’s removal.

“I’ve by no means witnessed a cougar in the wild, but I’ve viewed them on leashes, smashed into cages, and crying for their mothers when breeders rip them away,” the Humane Society’s Donithan mentioned. “I’ve also observed the heartbreak of house owners, like in this circumstance, following becoming bought not just a wild animal, but a bogus desire that they could make a superior ‘pet.’”

Donithan reported this cougar was comparatively fortunate simply because her homeowners, who are living in the Bronx, acknowledged that a wild cat is not suit to live in an condominium and surrendered her.

“The owner’s tears and nervous chirps from the cougar as we drove her absent painfully drives home the a lot of victims of this horrendous trade and myth that wild animals belong anywhere but the wild,” Donithan mentioned.

Division of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos stated that although cougars “might glance lovable and cuddly when youthful, these animals can improve up to be unpredictable and perilous.”

Bronx Zoo director Jim Breheny stated the unique pet trade will make no contribution to the conservation of endangered species.

“These animals generally end up in really undesirable scenarios, saved by personal persons who never have the assets, amenities, awareness, or know-how to present for the animals’ most standard needs,” Breheny said. “In addition to these welfare fears for the animals, the maintaining of significant cats by private men and women poses a actual basic safety hazard to the proprietor, the owner’s spouse and children and the community at big.”

New York has found other notable situations involving unsafe animals in personal residences, like Ming, a 400-pound tiger that was eradicated from a Harlem condominium in 2003.

Ming’s owner, Antoine Yates, was arrested and sentenced to five months in prison for reckless endangerment. Ming died in 2019 at the Noah’s Dropped Ark Exotic Animal Rescue Center in Ohio.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea reported the cougar’s scenario “is now under investigation and no further data is out there at this time.”