Owning a serval in France is possible after a long administrative process: you need trainer training and a suitable enclosure to obtain a certificate of competency. This document, Virginie does not have it. And yet, she does welcome a serval into her home. For fear that it will be seized, she wishes to remain anonymous in front of our camera. She bought her baby serval at the Belgian border for 4500 euros. Growing up, it became aggressive towards its first owner, who got rid of it. Virginie then picked it up, thinking it was a savannah, a cross between a cat and a serval, a species authorized under certain conditions. “JI cracked completely, I had a feeling, but I knew nothing, she assures. When I knew it was too late, I loved her“. Keeping a wild animal is however punishable by 3 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros. But Virginie “who cares“: “There, we are talking about the love of a beast‘.
The serval is fashionable, and the traffickers have understood this. On the Internet, there are dozens of advertisements, all illegal. Prices range from 3500 to 9000 euros. By contacting one of the sellers who lives in Spain, the TF1 team is sent back to Belarus. A woman in a bathrobe who presents herself as a breeder then gives some summary advice on the phone: “He eats milk“. Price to bring the animal home in France: 7500 euros. The serval will enter Europe via Poland, where an accomplice will establish false papers by passing it off as a domestic cat, an Egyptian Mau: baby, it is very difficult to tell them apart.
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