Email

Print

And by 9:30 - Max had been snared - Monica Bodden picks up the story from there:

At 10:30 last night the HEALTHY male jaguar called Max was trapped in one of Omar Figueroa's traps:

Omar Figueroa, Conservation Biologist
"Around 9:35 pm the trap was triggered and at that moment we knew we had it because I didn't see any signs of another cat in the area and so I moved in with my team. When we got there, there were folks from the Forest Department and folks from the Belize Zoo at the Fosters' so we all went back to check on the trap and it was a hit. It was the target cat, we identified it. As you know jaguars have unique rosette patterns - no 2 jaguars have the same pattern. So immediately we knew that was the cat. And then like you do with any cat in a trap you immediately have to move in and immobilize the cat, so that's what we did. We had the veterinarian on site and we had the zoo staff on site, we immobilized the cat, we knocked him down. I think about 10:15-10:20 the cat was down, he was stable. The cat was a very healthy cat. It probably weighed about 130 pounds."

After he was captured, a vet was brought in to put him down - a sad moment for the big cat's owner Richard Foster:

Richard Foster, owner of jaguar
"The Forestry Department had a serious talk about it and they decided that it would be better for the country and better publicity for everyone if this cat was put down. We are sad because this is a beautiful cat and you cannot blame the cat for doing this. It is what we do as human beings to these animals, so in all it is a very sad situation."

Sad but absolutely necessary says Figueroa

Omar Figueroa, Conservation Biologist
"When an animal crosses a certain line, I mean it comes a time when you have to make some hard decisions and it's not to say that it was the cat's fault. I think it's wrong to start pointing fingers and say whose fault it was. But it's hard to really say what happened, there was a dog that got injured as well and so it's kind of difficult to really put the pieces together. It is a serious tragedy unfortunately but I believe that first and foremost human's safety has got to be safeguarded. In all the research we do, in all our efforts we are driven first and foremost by human safety. When something comes that compromises that then we need to act in the best interest of human safety. It's just that something had to be done to relieve fears that people might have naturally and so I believe the Forest Department made the right decision."

Now this beleaguered owner is concerned about the reputation of jaguars with al the international media buzz this one has generated

Richard Foster, owner of jaguar
"Many of these cats that are in captivity especially in Belize are the ones that are cattle killers and they were trapped and brought and kept in the Belize Zoo. It would be ridiculous and a very dangerous thing to do to release a jaguar into the wild. No one will never do anything like that and we certainly wouldn't do that and this cat escaped purely because of the ferocious hurricane that came through."

Conservation biologist Figueroa says keeping predatory cats as pets is always an iffy proposition.

Omar Figueroa, Conservation Biologist
"At the zoo they have very capable and competent staff there, they have wonderful education programs to handle these type of cats. You need the trained people like the folks at the zoo and I also must say that I believe that the Foster's were capable as well, they have a history of working with these animals in the wild, in captivity. They have done some remarkable documentaries and like I said it was a freak accident with a tree falling on what was otherwise a safe and secure structure to hold in this cat. But something needs to be made clear here, this is not a wild cat. A wild cat is a completely different cat, a wild cat behaves differently a wild cat would never attack a human. IF a wild cat would attack human I would be here standing with you. There are days in the forest when I walk along trails and when I walk back I see jaguar tracks on top of my tracks. If wild jaguars were attacking humans the entire Americas would be a different place. That doesn't happen."

"Well this jaguar had to be out down to rest due to his actions that he had committed of taking a human life hence you can see here. This is where he was injected into the heart with a lethal injection."

Figueroa - who is also a senator is completing his doctoral thesis on jaguars in Central Belize. The forestry department took out the dead jaguar this morning. We note that the story has picked up major traction in international media with the inevitable misrepresentations and exaggerated portrayals of jaguars running wild in central Belize. The Belize Zoo took the brunt of it with the US Embassy issuing a visitors' advisory stating that the jaguar had escaped from the Belize Zoo - which it did not. Foster's home is a mile away from the zoo.