She was carrying a lion cub in her car: a woman arrested for illegal possession of a protected animal species

The lion cub aboard the Bentley in Pattaya. Capture X @WhiskeyRum

This Friday, January 26, 2024, a woman was arrested in Thailand while transporting a lion cub in the back of a luxury car.

Images that are controversial. This Friday, January 26, a woman was arrested for illegal possession of a lion cub that she was transporting in a Bentley, according to Thai police relayed by Le Parisien. The images of this car outing were widely relayed on social networks and sparked numerous reactions.

No authorization

In the video, we can see the young feline in the back of a Bentley convertible driving through the streets of Pattaya, where the crowds are quite high due to tourism. An investigation was opened by the police.

Home-slice rolling down soi 5 with a lion cub in the back of his Bentley- Pattaya pic.twitter.com/PO2as32QWO

— whiskey&rum (@WhiskeyRum) January 23, 2024

If the law of the country does not prohibit owning a lion, the latter must in fact be officially registered, which is not the case for Sawangjit Kosoognern, the owner of the animal. The latter is accused of possessing "without authorization a protected animal species", reports the police on its Facebook page. < em>"We apprehended her under the Wild Animal Protection Act of 2019", she specifies.

As a result, the arrested woman risks being ordered to pay a fine which could be up to 100%. raise up to 100,000 bahts, which corresponds to 2,600 euros, but also a year of imprisonment, details Le Parisien.

The respondent, however, declared having purchased the lion cub from a woman in the province  of Nakhon Pathom, but was unable to have an official document because information regarding the sex of the animal was missing. She claims to have kept the feline in a luxurious house rented by a businessman (who drives the Bentley in the video), who has since been deported to his country, Sri Lanka.

According to the Thai authorities, there are more than 200 lions legally owned by individuals throughout the country, specifies the French daily newspaper.