Nevada deputies seize 7 'emotional support' tigers from home
Tigers seized from Nevada home (Nye County Sheriff's Office)
Authorities in Nye County, Nevada, seized seven tigers from a home in Pahrump last week and arrested their owner for resisting an officer.
According to FOX 5 Vegas, the tigers’ owner, Karl Mitchell, didn’t have the proper permits to have them. Deputies didn’t plan to arrest Mitchell – only seize the tigers – but they said he made threatening remarks to deputies and then later struggled with a deputy. He was taken to the ground and arrested.
What they're saying:
"Our intention was to seize the cats, number one for public safety, number two for the safety of the cats. And then he struggled with the deputy," Sheriff Joe McGill told FOX 5.
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‘Emotional support’ tigers
The other side:
Mitchell told KTNV that he had the tigers for seven years and claimed they’re his emotional support animals. He also claimed he got some of them from Joe Exotic, the infamous star of Netflix’s Tiger King, but Joe Exotic, who’s serving a 21-year-prison sentence in Texas, denied those claims in a post on X.
What’s next: The tigers were taken to a sanctuary out-of-state while the investigation continues, KTNV reported.
The Source: This report includes information from the Nye County Sheriff's Office in Nevada, FOX 5 Vegas, KTNV and Joe Exotic's X page.