Front page jaguar rescue – “exotic pet trade’s dark underbelly” LA Times 10/6/24

While papers have been largely packed, over the last week, with coverage of the upcoming election, today’s lead story, Sunday October 6, page one, above the fold, including a painfully adorable photo of a tiny jaguar cub, is  “Jaguar cub’s journey to sanctuary.” The article, by Brittny Mejia, has the subheading, “One mistreated animal’s story exemplifies the exotic pet trade’s dark underbelly.”

It opens:

“At less than a month old, unsteady on his small paws, the jaguar cub was already working.

“While others born in the Amazon rainforest were still being nursed by their mothers, he was rented out to do a photo op in a Texas hotel room for $1,000 an hour.

“People snapped their fingers to get the cub’s attention and held him on their laps. They posed with him for photos later posted on Instagram.

“In video of one such photo shoot, the cub — smaller than a house cat — shrank back from the loud voices around him. As the jaguar wandered on the hotel carpet, Abdul ‘Mannie’ Rahman, who had paid to rent him, decided he wanted to purchase the tiny feline.

“Rahman, who made his money illegally selling marijuana, paid a discounted rate of $25,000 and another $1,000 to have the cub transported from Texas to his California home — breaking federal law.”

Later in the piece we read:

“’I’m an animal person. I love animals, especially wild ones,’ Rahman told The Times. ‘When I’m getting offered to buy a wild animal, and it’s so cute when you see it, when it’s small, who the f— is gonna say no? No one will.’”

We also hear from special agent for Fish and Wildlife Services, Ed Newcomer:

“When you arrest these people, and they end up in front of a judge, they tell the judge, ‘I’m an animal lover. I just got a little carried away.’ And nothing pisses me off more. They are not animal lovers….They are either in it for the money or they’re in it for the obsession of collecting and owning and having and controlling.”

The article is well worth reading. If you hit a paywall at the link above you might try this link from Us-robinhood.com , though given how good the Los Angeles Times is on animal issues I happily encourage you to get a subscription.

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The same Sunday paper includes an article, on page B3, by Lila Seidman, titled, ” Planning how to let wildlife roam.”

The AI summary of the online version is as follows:

•            A new law directs local jurisdictions to consider and protect wildlife movement in their land-use plans.

•            The effort builds on previous legislation that targeted animal passage and safety on state highways.

•            The soonest cities and counties will need to comply with the requirements is Jan. 1, 2028.

If you hit a paywall at the LA Times link above you might try this one from Bushcraftusa.com

I hope one of those articles might inspire you to thank the Los Angeles Times for its coverage and respond with a thought regarding our “love” of, and treatment of, wildlife and/or all animals.

I send thanks to activist extraordinaire Elaine Livesey-Fassel for keeping such a close eye on the Los Angeles Times for us.

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The Desert Sun, from Palm Springs California, today shares the good news on page 2, “California can’t farm octopuses to eat in bill signed by Gavin Newsom.” Californians and/or octopus lovers, in particular, may wish to respond / .

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In other major media animal news posted over the last week to the DawnWatch Facebook Page:

The Los Angeles Times covered, on Friday, hope for threatened salmon with the removal of the Klamath River Dam.

And WMTV has confirmed that a North Atlantic right whale death in Maine was due to fishing rope entanglement.  That’s a good one to share with the pescatarians in our lives.

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch