Louisiana firefighters responding to a small house blaze found a wildcat native to sub-Saharan Africa illegally enclosed in the back yard, and an animal welfare agency is now seeking to place the creature in an appropriate environment, according to officials.
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agency → respond → officials
Firefighters investigating a report of a minor fire at a home in the suburban New Orleans community of Marrero on Tuesday spotted the cat in question – an African serval – behind the residence in a chain-linked enclosure resembling a cramped baseball batting cage, a spokesperson for the local animal protection services said.
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spokesperson → investigate → services
A statement from Jefferson protection and animal welfare services (JPaws) said its director, Michelle Brignac, and humane department supervisor, Victoria Clark, joined firefighters at the scene after they were summoned there.
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they → say → scene
Local laws require an exotic animal permit to legally keep a serval as a pet, and the owner of the home at the center of the case did not have such a document, JPaws spokesperson John McCusker told the Guardian on Thursday.
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McCusker → require → Thursday
The statement said Brignac and Clark therefore “subdued the hissing serval and wrangled it” into a transport carrier from its 9ft-by-9ft (7.53-sq-meter) cage that McCusker likened to “a dog kennel”.
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McCusker → say → kennel
Brignac and Clark then brought the serval to the JPaws facility in the nearby community of Harvey, according to the statement from the agency, which also shared vivid photographs of the wildcat.
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which → bring → wildcat
Beside their black spots, svelte physiques and striking facial features, servals are known for their ability to leap as high as about 7ft (2 meters) in the air.
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servals → know → air
So McCusker said JPaws gave the serval an entire room to itself while the agency sought an appropriate refuge for the wildcat, which was born in captivity but whose natural habitat is African grasslands.
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habitat → say → captivity
Servals share some similarities with domesticated cats that make them immensely popular as pets, including their affinities for grooming themselves, purring, yowling and stalking potential prey.
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them → share → prey
Nonetheless, they are not easily sustained pets, JPaws’ statement maintained.
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statement → sustain → ?
Servals in captivity do not have the physical space and stimulation needed to engage in normal, healthy behaviors, and they endure chronic stress as a result, the agency’s statement said.
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statement → have → result
They mark their territory, become aggressive as they mature, cannot be fully house-trained and destroy furniture, and they have been known to barge through walls and doors, according to JPaws.
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they → mark → JPaws
Experts also say servals require a diet and specialized care beyond what house cats need, making them a major responsibility.
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them → say → what
JPaws’ statement said the agency would explore having the serval held temporarily at New Orleans’ Audubon zoo.
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serval → say → zoo
A zoo spokesperson, however, said the institution did not plan to take the serval in and understood JPaws was looking into another arrangement, the details of which were not immediately available on Thursday.
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details → say → Thursday
The Marrero serval was the latest of several indicators of the wildcats’ growing popularity, a boom driven in part by social media content creators showing them in videos online.
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serval → grow → videos
Cases involving servals have also tended to generate widely read news headlines in North America.
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Cases → involve → America
That happened in Ohio in 2023, when officials in the Cincinnati area captured an African serval named Amiry that was spotted in a Cincinnati neighborhood tree and later tested positive for cocaine.
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that → happen → cocaine
In late 2025, a search for an African serval that escaped a Pennsylvania wildlife center culminated in heartbreak after a motorist fatally struck the wildcat, as Philadelphia’s NBC News affiliated reported.
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affiliated → escape → wildcat
And the news outlet People reported on authorities in the Canadian city of Vancouver returning an African serval to its owners after it escaped and nestled under a neighbor’s porch in June.
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it → report → June
The British Columbia province to which Vancouver belongs had just banned keeping exotic cats such as African servals as pets.
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Vancouver → belong → pets
But, People reported, the owners of such cats were given until the beginning of May 2027 to apply for permits to legally possess them.
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owners → report → them
The Aporia
