The owner of a seven-year-old leopard who escaped from the enclosure in the village of Nezlobnaya in the Stavropol Territory was seriously injured – stitches were needed in his ear and head area for an hour and a half. The victim’s son, Andrei Baskakov, told socialbites.ca. He explained that the wildcat had to be “neutralized” because it posed a threat to neighbors.
“Dad Dmitry, as usual, brought food to the leopard – this time it was chicken necks. He entered the enclosure, handed it over, turned around, and then the leopard jumped on his back. Before that, the horse was doing it affectionately, but now it caught it and started gnawing it. I scratched his ear and caused many injuries. The leopard ran away, my father ran home covered in blood, it was already 2:30. The whole family woke up and we started to catch him. The leopard jumped over the fence and they couldn’t find him for two hours. The Ministry of Emergency Situations, the police, everyone combed the forest belt. We found this on another neighbor’s land. There was a choice: You would either save the leopard’s life or your neighbor’s. I didn’t have to think for long. Three shots were fired. The leopard had to be neutralized because it posed a threat to the neighbor,” said Andrey.
According to him, the head of the family and his sons participated in the search for the leopard, which lasted more than two hours, despite their injuries. When a wild cat was found in a neighbor’s house and the neighbors were warned of the danger, Dmitry Baskakov was taken away by ambulance.
“My father went to the hospital only two hours after the incident when the police came to the neighbor’s house. His face was covered in blood, he could no longer stand. He was taken to our city hospital, they sewed up his ear for half an hour and his head for an hour. “It was so torn up there,” Andrey explained.
The young man said that the leopard lived and was cared for in a large area, so the family did not understand what could have caused the wildcat’s aggression.
“I don’t think my father is to blame for anything… He built a fence and didn’t buy a car like many zoos do. The enclosure is large and has trees. People on social networks complain that our leopard lives like a circus animal. But the people in our home realized that conditions for a leopard like ours were heavenly. He lived in this enclosure for five years, and before that he lived there in one of the rooms on the second floor for two years until everything was completed. So there was no threat to us. I can easily walk into the room and pet it. He fawned over me. We know how to communicate with a leopard, how to resist it, so we were already prepared. If this happens suddenly, my father has prepared us for it. But during these seven years he never showed any aggression. Today, no one knows where he came from. But it can be predicted that this is still a predator and its character will reveal itself sooner or later,” Andrey said.
On Sunday, December 3, Telegram channel 112 reported that a leopard escaped from a private farm in the Stavropol Territory and injured its owner. Now the Investigative Committee is investigating whether the owner has a permit to keep a wild animal.
Previously bailiffs in Ugra confiscated four bears.