PexelsThere’s never a dull moment at the airport. The people that work for the various airlines probably get to witness all sorts of things while working their shifts. Some get to meet and greet with celebrities; others just might have to deal with extremely frustrated passengers (delays and cancellations are probably the worst to handle!); and in this one case, airport authorities and personnel had to deal with a baby leopard.
Things got suspicious when airport officials heard weird noises coming from a man’s luggage on Feb 2, 2019, at the Chennai airport, in India. The man was flying in from Bangkok, but he wasn’t alone.
After opening his luggage, authorities found a 2.2lb, month-old leopard cub in the suitcase. As if this wasn’t harrowing enough, the man had the cub in a plastic basket, most probably to try to conceal it to the best of his ability. Imagine the suffocation the poor animal was probably feeling at the time he was stuck in the suitcase, inside a plastic basket.
The 45-year-old man caught in the act of bringing the baby leopard into India is not giving much information to the police. BBC News reports that he is being “evasive in his answers” since the questioning has commenced.
Talking more about the incident with MSN, Rajan Chaudhary, Chennai Airport’s commissioner of customs, said:
“On Saturday morning, AIU officers noticed that a male passenger was moving in a suspicious manner in the arrival area. After he collected his check-in luggage, he was walking in a rather hurried manner. A faint sound was coming from his checked-in luggage. On examination of his stroller bag, a pink plastic basket was found in which a small animal resembling a leopard cub was found.”
Describing the state of the animal, Rajan mentioned that “[it] was in a state of shock, and was making trill sounds and appeared to be weak.”
The authorities are now investigating whether or not the man is a part of an international smuggling ring. While the police investigation is underway, a video surfaced in which you can see Chennai airport authorities feeding the leopard cub milk out of a baby’s bottle.
Click on the video below to watch this footage along with a full news report on the incident.
