A Murrieta man and a Texas woman face prison time after abandoning a jaguar cub at a wildlife sanctuary in Alpine.
40-year-old Trisha Denise Meyer and 34-year-old Abdul Rahman were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday October 8 on charges of illegally trafficking and transporting an endangered species.
The indictment says Rahman paid $1,000 to have the cub transported to him from Texas. But after realizing the jaguar was too difficult to take careof, he sold it to a new owner for $17,000.
The cub was with the new owner for about a month, before wanting to get rid of it because his wife about to give birth.
The new owner then put the jaguar in a dog kennel, and abandoned it at the exotic animal rescue facility Lions, Tigers, and Bears, where the cub still resides.
Meyer faces 8 years in prison and $700,000 in fines. Rahman is looking at 7 years and $600,000 in fines.