SAN ANTONIO: a woman has been issued with a citation (a criminal charge without an arrest) for taking a pair of bobcat kittens from their mother. She lied about it. She said that she found the kittens in an alleyway in San Antonio when in fact there were taken from the attic of a shack owned by her brother in a nearby county. Because the woman misled the authorities the window of opportunity to reunite the kittens with their mother has probably been lost.
It is likely that the kittens will now have to be looked after for one year by Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Inc (WRR) before being released into the wild.
Apparently, the brother and sister initially thought that they had found purebred Bengal kittens and wanted to keep them. It would have been extremely unusual for a couple of Bengal kittens to be in the loft of a shack because they are purebred. The only place you see Bengal kittens are with breeders or owners.
The sister, Jane Dinscore, tried to feed the kittens. Jane, her sister and her niece were all bitten and scratched as they tried to do this. Having failed they contacted the local Animal Care Services. No doubt they realized that they were not dealing with domestic cats. However they took their time. Several days had elapsed.
Fabricated Story
It seems that she made up the story about finding the kittens in an alleyway because she knew that she was at fault. She may have known it was a crime. Diana Reyes, the chief executive and development officer with WRR said that her behavior was inexcusable. She appears to be very angry because Dinscore was more concerned with protecting herself than ensuring that the kittens were returned to their mother. She lacked moral courage Reyes said.
I suppose that you have to know purebred cats well to see that these kittens could never be Bengals. They should have realized this very quickly and replaced them. Bobcat kittens vocalize in a completely different way to domestic cats. This combined with their behavior would have provided an immediate indication that there were wild cats.
We should give a thought to the kittens’ mother who is no doubt confused and upset at the loss of her kittens.
P.S. it is just possible that WRR can still reunite the kittens with their mother which remains their goal. I may be barking up the wrong tree but the story is ironic bearing in mind the rampant hunting of bobcats in Texas. How many kittens have been orphaned this way?
I hope they throw the book at them. And I hope it’s a heavy one.
🙂 Looks deliberate to me. The desire to possess an interesting cat cancelled out the moral duty to do the right thing.
I’d wager that She knew exactly what she was doing and that it was breaking the law.
She may well have been lured by the chance of selling on these poor kittens within the exotic pet trade. Outlets aren’t that difficult to find, plenty of Facebook groups selling wildlife, claiming exemptions and “captive bred”
The only thing this girl didn’t give a thought to was the devastation she caused to the infant Bobcats, the poor mother, the finding of funds for vet care, rehabbing them back to the wild and of course feeding and shelter.
Here’s to septic bites and long term scars. But most of all here’s to some education!
Er, where were the parents?
Just seen the ‘keep, breed & sell ‘ sell plan. Breeding siblings? Maybe some human siblings managed that and this kitten stealing idiot child is the result.
Nice irony as you say, with the hunting aspect. Oh what a world!
It seems that the mother of the bobcats was out hunting for food at the time they were taken.
…and someone was deliberately taking note of that or just waiting. Life for wildlife mothers is very hard.
Contextually just as traumatic for the Bobcat mother as it would be for a human mother who had had her babies stolen.