In nightclubs, it is not uncommon to meet cougars. A serval is rarer. But in Valenciennes it was this small African cat that the police discovered during a search in a nightclub in Valenciennes in the north. In November 2023, the manager of the site was given a conditional fine of 500 euros for illegally keeping the animal on the premises of his company.
Named Thor, this serval is far from the only one that has been the subject of human trafficking, which has intensified in recent years. Thor, Buzz or Sherkhan were bought illegally and then abandoned by their owners: victims of a fashion worn by certain influencers, these servants were taken in by a shelter in the Loire.
Fear of the wrath of justice
Established in 2008, this two-hectare site by the Tonga Terre d’Accueil Association serves as a refuge for nearly a hundred felines and primates abandoned by individuals or circuses, sometimes fearing the wrath of the law. Often also because the animal becomes unmanageable as it grows.
“We have already found felines that had destroyed the wallpaper in a room. The owners were completely overwhelmed. This is why some servants have been abandoned on the street. », an official from the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB) explained in April to 20 minutes.
Of the five Leptailurus servals welcomed in 2021, “around thirty” have found asylum there over the past two years, explains Jean-Christophe Gérard, 52, veterinarian for the association. He currently oversees about ten of these small felines, distant cousins of the cat, with large ears and a long neck. The others were placed in zoos. The association is also working to bring them back to their natural habitat, in Africa.
Star on social media
Tall on its legs, with its slender silhouette and its black spots on a golden yellow dress, this African cat seduces on social networks, often presented in the arms of stars that contribute to its popularity.
Thus, the Canadian singer Justin Bieber shows on Instagram his two Savannahs, which are the result of the hybridization of a serval with a cat. “People show up near a serval and there is a great demand,” complains Pierre Thivillon, 79, who founded the Saint-Martin-La-Plaine zoo in 1972.
The serval found in a nightclub in Valenciennes was also a real star on social networks, where he was seen swimming in a swimming pool, playing with a small dog or cuddling his owner.
Similarity to savannah
Smuggled from farms in Russia, Belarus or the Czech Republic, servals are sold in France for 4,000 to 10,000 euros, most often under the counter.
Dealers supply them as small as house cats, often with an electronic chip that fraudulently presents them as such. The similarity of their spotted fur to kittens of the breed “Egyptian Mau, Bengal or Savannah” fuels the confusion of the control authorities, who struggle to identify them, according to the Loire vet.
As they grow, their weight can reach 20 kg, and it becomes bad for owners who are not familiar with the habits of this carnivorous wild species. The animals end up being abandoned when they are not seized directly.
Chain attack
“Since 2017, there have been an average of six seizures of servals per year, with a peak in 2020 during Covid. But since the beginning of the year, there have been more than ten,” laments Bérengère Monvoisin, environmental inspector at OFB. Large metropolises, and in Lille in particular is particularly affected by the phenomenon.
In France, the retention of servants is subject to strict administrative permits for both individuals and professionals, who otherwise face a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.
In July 2021, the courts sentenced a serval owner known as the “king of the jungle” on YouTube to ten months in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros, praising this “only cat that has the same ancestor as the lion”.
