A Thai woman, identified as Sawangjit Kosoognern has reportedly been charged with illegal possession of a lion cub after a video of the animal cruising in a Bentley went viral online.
According to reports, the police ordered an investigation after a video showing a lion cub riding around the raucous Thai resort town of Pattaya in a Bentley gained more than 2.6m views online.
Kosoognern was charged with breaking environmental and natural resources law by “possessing a protected wildlife without authorisation”, the central investigation bureau announced on its official Facebook page. “We have arrested her, using the Wild Animal Conservation and Protection Act 2019,” the police statement said.
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Under Thai law, she could be fined up to 100,000 baht (£2,200) and face a year in jail.
Sawangjit told police she bought the lion from another woman for 250,000 baht but failed to acquire an official handover document owing to insufficient information regarding the lion’s sex. She kept the cub in a house rented by a Sri Lankan man who was seen driving the Bentley in the video.
The national parks and wildlife department said that she has since been deported to Sri Lanka.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
