French police reportedly found a six-week-old lion cub living in an apartment in Paris’ suburbs and arrested its suspected owner.
The female cub was found in a child’s bed in the apartment of the suspect’s neighbor in Valenton, in the Val-de-Marne region, Agence France-Presse reported. She was reportedly healthy and handed over to wildlife officials.
The 30-year-old suspect was found hiding in a closet, an unnamed source close to the investigation told the news agency.
Police were alerted after they found videos of a man selling the cub for around €10,000 ($11,400) on social media, Agence-France Presse said. The suspect, who was not named, had previous convictions for theft, French newspaper Le Parisien reported.
This is not the Paris police force’s first run-in with lions in the city. A half-starved lion, named King, was found in the Noisy-le-Sec suburb in northeast Paris in 2017.
King was “traumatized by his misadventure” and was sent to a reserve in south Africa where he receives daily care, police said in August 2018. “Wild animals are neither domestic animals nor toys, and are subject to specific regulations,” the police wrote. “Thank you for respecting them.”
