Highway tiger: Big cat in Qatar gives drivers a fright

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/highway-tiger-big-cat-in-qatar-gives-drivers-a-fright/2016/03/08/bb5626c8-e532-11e5-a9ce-681055c7a05f_story.html

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Talk about a hair-raising commute.

Drivers in the energy-rich Mideast nation of Qatar got a surprise Monday when an escaped tiger was seen prowling among cars on a major motorway.

Police said they were looking into footage circulating on social media showing the tiger making its way between vehicles in the capital, Doha. Other images showed a man in a traditional white robe holding the big cat on a chain, suggesting it had been recaptured.

Some wealthy Arabs in Qatar and other Gulf states keep big cats as status symbols despite prohibitions against the practice.

A lion escaped its Dubai owner’s home in January and was captured wandering a residential neighborhood. In Kuwait, a man was sued in 2014 after his pet lion escaped and attacked a Filipina maid.

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