VIDEO: Dangerous wild cat on cocaine captured in Ohio neighborhood
CINCINNATI (WKRC) — The Cincinnati Zoo is now home to a wild African serval. The cat is native to Africa but was caught in the Oakley neighborhood in Cincinnati in late January.
Cell phone video shot by Reid Faherty captured a serval high up in a tree on Edroy Court.
"These types of animals are considered dangerous. They are on the dangerous wild list for Ohio," said Chief Troy Taylor with the Hamilton County Dog Warden's Office.
Taylor initially it was thought the cat was an F1 Savannah house cat. While similar in looks to the serval, the two are very different animals.
It was sure a sight to see and after talking to the cat expert, he said we did a great job and also pretty lucky because this cat could’ve shredded us apart and killed us."
It that's not wild enough, test results came back that this serval named Amorie had cocaine in his system.
"Toxicology came back the animal was positive for narcotics in its system. And DNA came back positive illegal serval."
While it's unclear how the wild cat got the drugs, he did suffer a broken leg during the capture.
The medical team at Cincinnati Animal CARE immediately went to work on a cat they'd never seen before on the examination table.
"I was shocked that we would even be in this position but luckily our medical team and veterinarian partners are great about helping us with protocols and what’s appropriate, not appropriate."
And with all that help, they quickly got Amorie feeling better.
"He got some good pain medications, kept a camera on him so we could monitor in that night and in the morning we were able to get a hold of the Zoo to take over care."
The Cincinnati Zoo continues to care for the animal. What's next has yet to be announced.
The animal's owner was cooperative and is not facing any charges.
While it is illegal to own this type of animal in Ohio, it's not illegal in Kentucky and Indiana.
