Vladimir Putin’s Tiger Is Killing Chinese Goats, Because Of Course It Is


Two goats in northeastern China are dead and three are missing, and the main suspect is — wait for it — Vladimir Putin’s tiger.

Ustin was one of three Siberian tigers let loose into the wild, with tracking systems, some time ago by Putin, according to the Guardian. The tigers’ GPS tracking systems revealed that they’ve crossed into China since being released. There, says China’s official state news agency Xinhua, one of them — believed to be Ustin — killed and ate two goats.

The skulls of the dead goats were crushed, and contained puncture wounds “the size of a human finger clearly visible,” according to Yahoo News.

Why China is blaming Putin’s tigers — Ustin, specifically — for the goat murders is not clear. Although they were once believed extinct, a very small — but growing — number of Siberian tigers besides Putin’s are known to inhabit China, according to the L.A. Times. Estimates place the number of Siberian tigers in the wild at around 40 and villagers have reported the animals, which leave paw prints the size of melons, killing their livestock.

Putin’s love of animals, and his publicity stunts involving them, has been a source of media amusement throughout his administration, according to the Telegraph. Since taking office, he’s flown with cranes in a motorized hang-glider, fired a tranquilizer dart into a whale (with a crossbow, no less), and taken measurements of a sleeping polar bear.

Putin’s fondness for tigers and other big cats even became something of a prop for an escalating war of words with the West. During the 2012 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi, while Barack Obama’s adorable Portuguese water dog Bo was delightfully gamboling about in the White House, Putin was posing for a picture with a snow leopard. The photo was then tweeted by a Kremlin official, alongside a picture of Obama holding an adorable poodle (and not Bo), according to this Inquisitr report.

As for Putin’s tigers now menacing Chinese goats, the Chinese government has cautioned people not to throw food at the tigers if they see one.

It is unclear if the Chinese farmers will be compensated by the Russian government for the goats killed by Putin’s tiger.

[Image courtesy of: Rob Silver Guitars]

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