It's proof that you can find just about anything on sale over Facebook.Texas Parks and Wildlife has seized a live, five year old tiger, which was advertised as "semi tame" in a Facebook ad from the Rio Grande Valley that caught the eye of a group of animal lovers, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Robin Zayas, who heads the Animal Advocates of Edinburg, says they normally scroll though the social media site, looking for dogs and cats for sale. That's against their terms of service. When she saw the ad for the tiger, she was appalled.
"It made me feel sick," she tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI. "Tigers belong in a zoo, in the wild or in a sanctuary."
The group mounted a campaign, calling local police and sheriffs and then Parks and Wildlife. The office opened an investigation, and eventually seized the animal. The tiger has since been transferred to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville.
"The veterinarian said that, in the last ten years, this is the eleventh tiger they've had to confiscate," Zayas explains.
It's unclear what could happen to the man who was selling the tiger over Facebook. Hidalgo County prohibits wild animal sales.
A search of court records show that he was out on bond after an arrest in 2015 for drug possession.
Edinburg police’s Vice Unit found 26 pounds of marijuana, Xanax pills, and over $50,000 in cash.
The tiger apparently came from a man that has connections to an exotic animal park in Oklahoma. It's unclear how it landed in the hands of someone who is not linked to the industry.
Zayas has a suspicion that the tiger's owner was trying to flip to it make a quick buck.
"Down here in the Valley, unfortunately we have a lot of cartel activity. Those are the kind of people who are interested in buying and selling tigers. Everybody wants to be Tony Montana."
PHOTO' GLADYS PORTER ZOO