Houston authorities are on the lookout for a Bengal tiger who escaped when its presumed owner, Victor Hugo Cuevas, 26, put the tiger in a white SUV and drove off after an off-duty deputy confronted Cuevas about the big cat roaming in his front yard on Monday (May 10). Cuevas was out on bond for a prior murder charge at the time he fled, and Houston Police Commander Ron Borza revealed, "There was a brief pursuit, and the man got away with the tiger." Cuevas was later apprehended, but the tiger's whereabouts remain unknown.
Cuevas' lawyer, Michael Elliott, told local news station KTRK that Cuevas is not the owner of the tiger, and he added that Cuevas had an agreement with authorities to peacefully surrender before they arrested him at his home. Elliott stated, "I understand that a lot of people are interested in what's going to happen with the tiger and what's going on, but in this case, HPD was in such a hurry to wrap it up (and) come find their guy, they just assumed. Because my client was the one who caught this tiger, who went out and got it, brought it back into safety, everyone is just assuming he's the owner of the tiger, that it's his tiger."
According to CNN, authorities are planning to revoke Ceuvas' bond for the November 2020 murder charge following this incident.
