Houston (AFP) - A Bengal tiger last seen a week ago roaming the lawns of suburban Houston and terrifying locals has been found unharmed and was being moved Sunday to an animal sanctuary, police said.
"We got him, and he's healthy," Houston police commander Ron Borza was seen saying in a video.
The animal, named India, had been in the custody of the wife of its owner, a 26-year-old man seen in social media videos last week kissing the untethered tiger before placing it into his car and driving off.
The man, identified as Victor Cuevas, was arrested Monday, freed Wednesday, then re-arrested Friday. He had faced a past murder charge.
When the incident began May 9, frightened neighbors saw the nine-month-old tiger wandering through their yards in a residential neighborhood.
Videos showed an off-duty sheriff's deputy pulling a gun when he saw the tiger, before Cuevas arrived to take it away.
The animal was recovered by the owner's wife, and she agreed to hand it over to police, Borza told reporters late Saturday.
He did not say where the big cat had spent the week but stressed that the woman, whose name was not announced, had always known its whereabouts.
"We are happy to report that the missing tiger seen in a Houston neighborhood last week has been found and appears to be unharmed," city police said.
Owning a tiger is illegal within Houston city limits -- though it is permitted in many parts of the state under certain conditions -- but police said Cuevas's wife would face no charges.
Still, Borza told reporters, "You should not have that in your home. It's not good for the tiger."
The Houston Police Department released a video of the 175-pound (80-kilogram) tiger being petted and given a drink.
The big cat was being transported to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas, where it will have its own habitat with half an acre of land (0.2 hectare), including a wooded area and pool.
"Our goal is to provide him the best quality of life for the rest of his life," ranch director Noelle Almrud told US media.
Texas is known for having a large number of tigers in captivity.
Nationwide, the WWF conservation group estimates that there are some 5,000 tigers living in captivity, a number greater than the entire world population of wild tigers.
Borza, in his news conference, thanked the Houston police officers who helped track the animal down.
"I think the public thought it'd be easy to catch a tiger," he said. "But it wasn't at all."
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