Jaguar kept in a Clondalkin garage turned out to be a real big cat

KEEPING a Jaguar in the garage might not seem unusual, but when the natural habitat of the beast is the Amazonian rain forest, it's a different matter.

Gardai searching a house in Clondalkin, Co Dublin, on Saturday found a full grown female jaguar and a serval - a smaller African cat in the garage of the end of terrace semi.

Mr Maurice Byrne, an inspector from the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA), was called to the house in Glenfield Grove. "The man from the zoo said this was potentially a man eating cat", he said. "I spoke to some of the neighbours and they said they didn't know it was there."

Mr Byrne said that the jaguar had been kept in a home made wooden cage. The serval, which is about the size of a collie dog, had been stored in a travel crate.

According to Mr Byrne, the jaguar was extremely docile and appeared to have been bred in captivity. The man in the house had told him that he owned the cat, but he did not have papers to prove this. He had claimed that he was keeping the serval for someone else.

Mr Byrne said that the man also told him that he took the jaguar out for walks at night and fed it on pigs' heads obtained from local butchers.

Both cats were taken to Dublin Zoo, where they were placed in quarantine.

When the authorities arrived at the house to remove the animals they had to shoot a sedative into the serval. "It was very agitated" said Mr Byrne. "When I put my face up to the cage to look at its colouring it was bouncing off the bars and spitting at me."

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said that the animals would require a licence if they had been imported from anywhere outside Britain. Such permits are intended to show that animals such as domestic dogs, and cats are rabies free.

The head curator at Dublin Zoo, Mr Ron Willis, confirmed that the cats were in good condition, but said that their future was a matter for the authorities. "Long term, they don't fit into our plans", he said.

Dublin Zoo already has two jaguars.