Chinese officials fined for keeping tigers as pets after one leapt to death from 11-storey building
Cases revealed after a cub jumped off the roof of the 11-storey building where it was kept
Three lawmakers from the eastern city of Qingdao in China have been fined for keeping eight endangered Siberian tigers as pets, according to a newspaper report.
The cases came to light after a seven-month-old tiger cub jumped to its death from an 11-storey building after it escaped from its cage in fear as fireworks were let off during the Lunar New Year holiday last month, The Beijing News reported.
The three men, who are members of the People’s Congress in the city, were each fined 3,000 yuan (HK$3,800), according to the report.
Businessman Yang Wenzheng had kept the cub, along with another young tiger, on the roof of a building he owned.
He was helping a friend, Cui Jinguang, who was the manager of a mountain park and could not afford to pay for all the tigers under his care.
He gave two to Yang and kept an adult and baby tiger himself.