A person who went into an abandoned house so they could smoke cannabis found a neglected tiger inside.
Police in Houston, Texas, said that when the person called to report what they had seen on Monday, they thought the caller was hallucinating.
But when they arrived there was indeed a large tiger, locked inside a cramped cage in the garage.
A few packages of meat had been kept nearby, but there was otherwise no sign that anyone lived in the house.
Despite being relatively calm for a tiger in its situation, it had to be tranquilised so animal rescue officers could get it out of the house safely.
It is now being transferred to a sanctuary elsewhere in Texas – although the exact location has not been publicly disclosed.
Right now we’re outside of @BARCHouston waiting for the tiger to be transported to an undisclosed animal sanctuary which will hopefully be the tiger’s forever home. They’re not telling us exactly where it’s heading because of the ongoing investigation. #khou11 #htownrush pic.twitter.com/MO9KIqBZoc
— Janel Forte (@JanelKHOU) February 12, 2019
Tigers are native to South and South East Asia, and to the far-east of Russia. They are endangered – the WWF estimates there are fewer than 4,000 left in the wild.
Source: BBC News
Image: Getty Images
