Local News
Hot Serval Cat
September 18, 2003 - 12:59 pm
By: Reaon Ford

Tips are still pouring in to Surrey Mounties about the serval cat that was boosted from a Kelowna woman's car on Tuesday. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are warning though that the cat's days may already be numbered if the people who stole it have any idea how much money they could get for it. Lisa Wathne from PETA says the black market animal trade is alive and well in North America, and exotic cats are an especially hot commodity, sometimes as pets, but more often as a collection of pelts, bones, and teeth. She tells News1130, sadly, big cats are commonly worth more dead than alive, and once an animal has been killed and taken apart, those parts can be called anything and then sold off. Wathne says it's not uncommon for the bones of any exotic cat to be ground up and sold off as tiger bones, which are of medicinal value in some cultures. She also says, unfortunately whoever stole this particular serval would have no trouble at all unloading it on the internet or in a newspaper ad.