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There are laws all over the world about what sort of animals can and cannot be kept as pets, and if you thought your neighbors were rebellious for trying to have pit bulls inside the city limits, wait until you hear what 27-year-old Malaysian singer Zarith Sofia Yasin tried to sneak past the proverbial gatekeepers.
The reality television star was caught with a sun bear in her Kuala Lumpur apartment (yes, apartment), says The Jakarta Post. She claims that when she picked the animal up on the side of the road the thought it was an injured or sick dog.
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“It was night time when I found the bear cub in a weakened state by the side of the road – and I thought it was a dog.”
She does admit to realizing her mistake (because how could you not?) and knowing that she had gathered up a baby sun bear, which is when she made the regrettable (and illegal) decision to take it home with her and nurse it back to health.
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Yasin claims she had planned to hand the bear – named Bruno – over to a zoo once it had recovered. She didn’t want to take him there until he was better, as she was “worried…because the animals there look skinny.”
She was found out and charged with having an illegal animal as a pet after people posted videos of the bear cub poking its head out of her windows – a crime that, under Malaysian law, could cost her around $50,000 or 10 years in jail.
Sun bears are a protected species, which means anyone caring for one needs a special permit. They’re native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and are officially listed as “vulnerable” under the IUCN Red List. Sun bears primarily eat ants, termites, beetle larvae, bee larvae, and fruits and get their name from a distinctive yellow patch on their face and chest.
Though some accuse Yasin of wanting to keep and sell the bear, she insists that she knew it couldn’t be kept as a pet and “only wanted to save the bear.”
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The singer isn’t alone – a Chinese family allegedly owned an 180-pound Asiatic black bear for over two years before they realized it wasn’t just a giant dog.
Allegedly. I just felt that bore repeating.
At any rate, Yasin’s little sun bear is now safe and sound in the hands of local Wildlife and National Parks officials.
Score one for the good guys.
