A Texan mother was once arrested for harboring three tigers and several “evil” monkeys under one roof as her teenage daughter now faces federal charges after allegedly playing the middleman in the sale of an endangered jaguar cub – which was later abandoned on the doorstep of wildlife in California safe haven.
Trisha Dennis Meyer, 40, has been hit with two misdemeanors and a felony, including interstate sale of an endangered species and trafficking outlawed wildlife, for moving a cub from Texas to California in 2021 after completing the $30,000 sale in a hotel room in Austin, and prosecutors Say.
The The allegations against Meyer are detailed in a criminal complaint filed September 15 in US District Court for the Central District of California. It was first acquired by The Daily Beast. Mayer’s co-defendant, Abd al-Rahman, is a Southern California auto dealer who bought a Jaguar from Mayer but “quickly became dissatisfied” and wanted to sell it without losing money. The complaint states that Abdul Rahman took a $5,000 credit to purchase a $25,000 Jaguar because Meyer had previously sold it a “crazy” marmoset.
Abdul Rahman unloaded the shipment on a couple – but the pregnant wife of the buyer was worried about a wild animal and a newborn in the same house. Eventually, the cub got too big and was lowered into the dead of night at an exotic animal rescue group in the Alps, California.
“These guys are just idiots,” said Bobby Brink, founder and director of the organization, Lions, tigers and bears, to the Daily Beast on Thursday. “And they don’t care about animals at all. It’s all about money.”
She said the Jaguar is now on the 93-acre Brink complex in the Alps, but she declined to comment further on the request of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which investigated the case.
Neither Mayer nor Rehman had attorneys on file with court records and did not respond to emails or messages left by The Daily Beast requesting comment.
US District Court for the Central District of California
Houston Seems like a hotbed of exotic animal trade. Meyer In 2016 for child endangerment After the police found three tigers, a cougar, a skunk and a fox in the house with her 14-year-old daughter. The game keeper spotted the girl “troddling and physically communicating with tigers and leopards communicating with her,” The Houston Chronicle I mentioned at the time.
Reportedly, Meyer told police, there were also several monkeys in the house, which had attacked people before. She was also accused of keeping tigers and monkeys in a Nevada home, where officers discovered a 17-year-old watching tigers feeding on raw chicken in a backyard. After taking a plea bargain for theft – an investigation began when an agent accused Meyer of defrauding him of $3,000 –She got a deferred sentence and didn’t have to spend any time in prison.
Six years later, Mayer found herself on the wrong side of the Lacey Act, a federal law passed in 1900 that prohibited the “trade or trade” of protected or illegally taken fish, plants, and wildlife. The jaguar has been listed as an endangered species since 1972.
In the complaint, Special Agent Ed New Comer of the US Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) said investigators became aware of the alleged crime in October of last year. At approximately 9:50 p.m. on September 17, 2021, two “unidentified individuals” were caught on a surveillance camera as they abandoned a confined jaguar near the entrance to lions, tigers and a bear, the complaint said.
On October 28, the newcomer spoke with Brink, who was identified as “BB” in the complaint. She told him that after leaving the cub at the shelter, some of her employees tracked Instagram videos of individuals posing as the same jaguar.
“The BB told me they compared the spot and whisker patterns on a live jaguar that fell at the facility on September 17, 2021, and I thought they were identical,” the complaint continues, noting that “the spot and whisker patterns on individual jaguars are unique and can be used in scientific research to identify them more accurately. ultimate.
The Instagram videos were traced to a man identified in court filings as AG, in Riverside, California. And his wife, whose name was not mentioned. During an interview with FWS, the man insisted that the Jaguar he posted on his Instagram belonged to the renter, who is identified in the complaint as HG. The man said he “never owned a Jaguar” and believed HG “bought a Jaguar from someone else for nearly $20,000”.
The complaint added that the AG believed that “after the jaguars had grown too large,” the tenant “planned to kill him” but that a friend persuaded him to hand it over to the Lion, Tigers, & Bears.
Investigators were able to speak with HG after he was arrested on two arrest warrants in Texas and Arizona on unrelated charges. HG denied owning a Jaguar and claimed that the owner was someone he described as Indian or Saudi. Later, HG told investigators he believed a “Texas woman” originally owned a jaguar and did not know how it got to Texas.
US District Court for the Central District of California
However, a major break in the case occurred after investigators spoke to a woman who posted videos on Instagram and TikTok of a Jaguar. The woman said she saw jaguars inside a hotel room in Austin, Texas after a car show in April 2021.
She said Rahman was there with a woman, later identified as Meyer, who had a very small live jaguar with her, according to the complaint.
Weeks later, the woman told investigators she had gone to California for another car show and had seen Abdul Rahman with a Jaguar cub. She added that “Rahman kept a jaguar in his home” and that he “didn’t know how to take care of a jaguar and she gave him advice on how to care for and feed him”.
About two months after Rahman unloaded the jaguar to HG, the woman saw the same cub at HG’s home. Prosecutors believe HG, who was living with his pregnant partner, purchased the cub from Rahman for about $20,000.
Investigators later learned that Abd al-Rahman had purchased a monkey monkey from Meyer sometime in 2020. The complaint notes that the marmoset was delivered to Rahman in a mesh bag, but he was “disturbed” because he was “crazy” and not as small as him. It was expected.
It was so difficult to care for a critter that Rahman asked a Las Vegas pet store to take care of him temporarily. The complaint says he never returned, “virtually giving up on the monkey in Las Vegas.”
When he then bought a Jaguar, someone told investigators, the cub “looked very sick and started ‘defecating everywhere.'” The person said he warned Abd al-Rahman ‘that buying a Jaguar was illegal and advised him not to.’ “
On August 24, 2022, investigators interviewed Abd al-Rahman, according to the affidavit. During that call, he admitted that he bought a Jaguar in May 2021 and named it “Amador” before renaming it “Hades”.
Mayer and Rahman also wrote a text message about the sale, including messages from Mayer acknowledging that the sale was against the law. After the sale, Meyer reached out to Rahman again about social media posts featuring the cub.
According to the complaint, Meyer wrote in a May 2021 text message, “Don’t trust me for that.” If you get word from here. This means that others see it and will report and will try to track it down.”
On August 24, Abdurrahman Mayer identified in a “six-group” photo set as “Mimi,” the woman who sold him a live jaguar, the complaint said.
Assistant US Attorney Joseph Jones, who is filing the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[ad_2]
