News Report: http://www.ksat.com/news/25852551/detail.html
News Video: http://www.ksat.com/news/25852551/detail.html#video
Spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez said the around 3 p.m., "Sarah," the cougar, was found in a wooded area near the intersection of Leslie Road and Loop 1604._________________________________________________
She said the cougar is no longer a danger to the community.
Carol Asvestas, the former director of the animal facility, told KSAT 12 News that the cougar showed up on the deck of her home in the 9600 block of Leslie Road and dragged a puppy away. An adult dog chased off the cougar and led Asvestas to a dry creek bed, where the puppy was. The puppy was injured and was being treated at a veterinary hospital.
Asvestas said the cougar escaped from a hole in an enclosure it was being kept in.
"She's a wild animal but her natural instinct to be afraid of people has been taken away from her because she was raised in captivity," Asvestas said.
Jamie Cryer, of the Wild Animal Orphanage, said he and orphanage staff walked up on Sarah in a dry creekbed behind the property.
He said after the fired the tranquilizer dart, they walked her back on a stretcher and she was checked out by a veterinarian, who said she was fine.
Cryer said he was relieved Sarah was shot by the dart and not by the bullets armed officers had at the ready.
Reporter Jessie Degollado contributed to this story.
Cougar caged after escape from northwest-side sanctuary
by Brian New and James Muñoz / KENS 5
kens5.com
Posted on November 19, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Updated yesterday at 7:32 PM
UPDATE -- A cougar that had escape from an animal sanctuary in northwest San Antonio has been captured.
The Wild Animal Orphanage is located at 9626 Leslie Road just outside Loop 1604 near Helotes. It is inside San Antonio city limits.
A neighbor said the cougar attacked a puppy at around 8 a.m. Friday and left it near death. She said one of her bigger dogs attacked the cougar, driving it away.
While officers conducted a search, area schools were on the alert and elementary school administrators canceled recess Friday afternoon.
The shelter is in the process of moving, and staff believe the cougar got out as cages were moved around. All along, they said they didn't think the animal would wander far.
Suzanne Straw with the Wild Animal Orphanage said she thought the cougar would return to its home at the sanctuary because the animal was not very mobile and that its mate was housed at the sanctuary. She believed the cougar would return to where her food source is, and that would be the shelter.
After an eight-hour search, law enforcement officers spotted the cougar around 3:30 p.m. and shot him with a dart gun. With a sigh of relief, the animal was returned to the sanctuary.
Since 1990, there have been 11 deadly cougar attacks in the United States. So, authorities say the cats are very dangerous.
WOAI Video
Anxious hours end in cougar's capture
By Peter J. Holley - Express-News Web Posted: 11/20/2010 12:00 AM CST
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Sara the cougar is carried back into the Wild Animal Orphanage on Friday after being caught near the facility on Leslie Road. The cougar had escaped earlier in the day. ROBIN JERSTAD/SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS
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Police recovered an escaped cougar after several hours of anxious searching in which more than half a dozen schools on the far Northwest Side kept students indoors, officials said.
Animal caretakers accompanied by police located the cat around 3 p.m. Friday and quickly shot it with a tranquilizer dart, authorities said.
The cougar — a 12-year-old named Sarah — was lying in brush about 100 yards from the Wild Animal Orphanage, where she slipped out of a gap in her enclosure earlier in the day, authorities said.
“She's awake and we're just waiting for her to be a little less groggy,” said Suzanne Straw, a volunteer board member at WAO. “Veterinarians are looking her over to make sure she's recovering smoothly from the tranquilizer.”
Authorities believe she slipped out of her pen after the wall of a nearby enclosure was demolished, creating an opening she could get through.
Carol Asvestas, who ran the sanctuary for 30 years and lives next door, said she alerted police about the escaped cat after it attacked her dog Friday morning.
“My first reaction was to save the puppy,” she said. “I kicked the cougar in the head, but that did nothing. It ran ... off my property and into the creek with the puppy in its mouth,”
Following a blood trail, Asvestas located the puppy and got it to a veterinarian. It's expected to recover.
In the search for the cat, police established a search quadrant of several square miles and had urged residents near Leslie Road and Loop 1604 to remain indoors.
A helicopter was deployed for hours, using an infrared camera to try to spot the fugitive.
Five elementary schools and one middle school brought kids inside after reports of the cougar's escape but released them to parents at the end of the school day without incident, Northside Independent School District spokeswoman Monica Faulkenbery said.
The principal at Galm Elementary, which was outside the search area, said his school also brought students inside from recess and locked them in classrooms after a reported sighting nearby, but police later told school officials it was a mistake.
A woman had reported seeing the cougar blocks from Galm, but her description persuaded authorities that she had seen a bobcat or large house cat instead, principal Ben Muir said.
Straw said Sara was declawed and feeble with arthritis, had no history of being aggressive, and had lived at the facility for five years.
The wildlife orphanage consists of two parcels, a seven-acre lot on Leslie Road and a 102-acre property on Talley Road, according to the organization's website. A message on the website says the facility is in the process of shutting down and relocating its animals to other facilities across the country.
Authorities said many of the facility's cages are being disassembled and shipped elsewhere as well.
Nearly 200 animals remain at the WAO, including 20 tigers, three lions, one black leopard and more than 100 monkeys.
“It's been heartbreaking to see them go,” Straw said, noting many of the animals housed at WAO come from private owners who no longer can take care of them. “But what happened today is a perfect example of why people should not have exotic pets.”
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