US Border Patrol agents rescued abandoned tiger cub from duffle bag

They encountered the unusual immigrant while chasing away three others.

According to KHOU11, agents of the U.S. Border Patrol recently found a tiger cub in a duffle bag left by three strangers at the Brownsville Border Patrol.

The agents first spotted the three individuals walking towards the border from the Mexico side, trying to make an illegal entry on to the United States land.

The incident took place neat the Rio Grande Valley, and among other details, the team noted that one of the strangers was wearing a black duffle bag.

After a failed attempt to cross the border, the trio returned to their side, but they left the duffle bag behind. The agents rushed to examine the bag and were shocked to find something totally unexpected inside.

A tiger cub, about three to months old, was found alive and curled up in the bag. The border patrol agents immediately alerted the authorities and had the cub transported to Brownsville’s Gladys Porter Zoo.

The baby tiger was examined at the zoo, and Irma Chapman, the Communications Director of the United States Border Patrol for the Rio Grande Valley Sector took to social media to share an update on the cub’s health.

Chapman stated that the rescued animal is expected to recover completely and shared a photo of the cub that the agents heroically saved.

According to NTD, a similar incident of attempted animal smuggling took place last year. Luis Eudoro Valencia, a teenager, tried to illegally transport a young Bengal tiger from Mexico to the U.S.

The Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) authorities nabbed Valencia, stopped the smuggling and handed over the custody of the tiger cub to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Speaking about that incident, the director of the CBP’s field operations in San Diego, Pete Flores had remarked that CBP officials often come across unusual situations and attempts to break the law.