Moment a pet TIGER is seen roaming around a Houston neighborhood before man grabs it by the collar and pulls it back into his home
- A tiger was filmed roaming around a West Houston neighborhood on Sunday
- Footage shows the tiger approach a man who has his gun trained on it, as terrified residents watch from their homes
- ‘There is a freaking Bengal tiger roaming in this yard and this dude needs to be careful,’ a woman is heard saying
- Another man who appears to be the tiger’s owner eventually appears
- He grabs the animal by its collar and takes into his home
- Texas has some of the most lenient exotic pet ownership laws in the United States, but it is illegal to own a tiger in the city of Houston
An escaped tiger has been caught on camera as it roams through a quiet suburban Houston neighborhood, before being ushered back into a man’s home.
Terrified residents filmed the big cat roaming freely in Ivy Wall Drive, in West Houston, around 8pm on Sunday evening.
The animal appears to be a pet, and is seen wearing a collar in the 54-second clip posted to social media. While the state of Texas has very relaxed laws on dangerous animals, is illegal to keep a tiger in the city of Houston.
In the video, the tiger is seen walking towards an armed man who has his gun trained on it.
The man – believed to be an off duty Sheriff’s deputy – backs up a few paces as the tiger gets within a few feet of where he is standing.
‘There is a freaking Bengal tiger roaming in this yard and this dude needs to be careful,’ a woman is heard saying on the video.
‘What the heck? Why is there a tiger?’
A tiger was on the loose in the quiet residential neighborhood of Ivy Wall Drive in West Houston on Sunday night
The tiger, identified by a neighbor as a Bengal, approaches a man with a weapon trained upon it in menacing fashion
The big cat stalks around a home in West Houston before a man who appears to be its owner appeared on the scene
Several pickup trucks and other vehicles appear to be trying to block the tiger in to prevent him from escaping.
An eyewitness capturing the footage, Maria Torres, can be heard shouting: ‘It has a collar. It is somebody’s pet.’
The person capturing the footage, which has been viewed nearly 750,000 times by Monday morning, makes a run for it when the tiger gets too close.
Eventually, a person who appears to be the tiger’s owner emerges from a house and can be heard saying: ‘I’ll get him, I’ll get him.’
The man grabs the animal by the collar and takes it back into a house.
‘Get the f** back inside. F**k you and your f**king tiger,’ another man can be heard yelling at him.
Neighbors told police that the man who got the animal under control then drove away with it in a white vehicle, 6ABC.com reported.
The armed man gestures to residents to stay back as the tiger gets within a few feet of his position
A man grabs the animal by the collar and takes it back into a house
A man who appears to be the tiger’s owner appears and takes the animal back into a house
Texas has some of the most lenient pet ownership rules in the country, however it is illegal to own a dangerous animal in the Houston city limits.
The neighborhood where the tiger was filmed is about 18 miles west of downtown Houston and still within its city limits.
Police are investigating the incident, and it is not yet known if the owner will face any charges.
Neighbor Jose Ramos later told ABC13 that the man with a gun was an off-duty deputy that lived in the neighborhood and came to help get the tiger under control.
A person named Rob Wormald posted video of the encounter between the tiger and the gunman on his Twitter account.
‘Apparently there’s a tiger loose on my parents’ West Houston street?’ he writes.
Animal welfare activists estimate there could be between 2,000 and 5,000 privately-owned tigers in the Lone Star State – making it second only to India in tiger population.