Tiger Walking Along Houston Street Confronted By Off-Duty Cop

HOUSTON — Other than Berani, the Malayan tiger at the Houston Zoo, tigers aren’t allowed in the city. But neighbors in one west Houston neighborhood are abuzz about one they saw briefly walk along their street Sunday night.

Police are abuzz as well, with reports indicating the tiger's owner is a man who was out on bond in connection with a 2017 murder charge. Victor Hugo Cuevas, 26, was arrested Monday night and charged with felony evading arrest after Houston police said he fled from them that morning, the police department said on Twitter.

The tiger, however, is still at large, and Cuevas' attorney has said the tiger does not belong to his client.

Residents on Ivy Wall Drive, near South Texas 6 and Memorial Drive, shared photos and videos with KHOU of the large orange and black striped feline walking in a front yard. The video footage shows the tiger walking slowly before stretching and lying down.

Another video, according to KHOU, shows a man later identified as an off-duty sheriff’s deputy holding a gun aimed at the tiger while yelling at someone who was seen bringing the animal inside the home.

“It’s (the tiger) someone’s pet,” said one of the people taking the video that the news station shared, although where exactly the tiger came from had not been confirmed as of Tuesday morning.

Part of the tense confrontation involving the tiger and the man with the gun was also shared by neighborhood residents on Twitter. The man with the gun is yelling for the tiger to be taken inside, as the animal slowly walks toward him in the street.

Ivy Wall Drive residents watching from windows thought the tiger would be shot, fearing for the safety of the man trying to keep the animal at bay. Someone eventually brings the tiger inside the home. But the tiger then was taken away from the area in a vehicle, witnesses told KHOU, before any on-duty police officers arrived.

Brittany Peet, a spokeswoman for the PETA Foundation animal rights group, blamed lax federal and state laws on the still unfound tiger in Houston.

"Until law enforcement cracks down on people who breed big cats, keep them in shoddy backyard cages, and sell photo ops with them, a loose tiger could be around any corner—and injuries and deaths could easily follow," Peet said in a statement to Patch.

"PETA urges Texas authorities to crack down on the state’s underground big-cat trade, track down this tiger, and get this animal into an accredited sanctuary," she added.

Michael Elliott, Cuevas' attorney, implied the tiger does not belong to his client.

"Everyone is just assuming that he’s the owner of the tiger and that it’s his tiger,” Elliott said after Cuevas' arrest, according to KPRC.

"We were working with the federal and state authorities to try to lead them and get them the information that we had about the owner of the tiger and how they might find the tiger and the owner of the tiger,” Elliott said.

Tigers are banned as pets in the city of Houston but are allowed in unincorporated Harris County, the report states. But even in the county, tiger owners need to keep their pets at least 1,000 feet from another home, among other restrictions.

Houston Police Commander Ron Borza said the immediate concern remains for the tiger.

"If that tiger was to get out and start doing some damage yesterday, I'm sure one of these citizens would have shot the tiger," he said, according to The Associated Press. "We have plenty of neighbors out here with guns, and we don't want to see that. It's not the animal's fault. It's the breeder's fault. It's unacceptable," he said.

Houston police have asked anyone who knows where the tiger is to call them at 713-308-3100.