By Amanda Pinto, Register Staff
apinto@nhregister.com / Twitter: @ampinct

While the mountain lion found dead on the Wilbur Cross Parkway over the weekend is a species believed to no longer inhabit the area, its presence in Connecticut is not as surprising as one might think.

A network of “unscrupulous dealers” whose wild animal trade has “quadrupled” with the growth of the Internet means the state is home to a range of non-native species, animal advocates said Sunday.

State law prohibits people from owning potentially dangerous animals such as big cats, wolves, bears and chimpanzees outside of zoos. But residents travel to nearby states that have varying levels of restrictions on animal ownership to make exotic animal purchases, officials said.

“In Ohio, that’s where they have auctions on the bigger (animals),” said Ron Wulff Jr., a former wildlife rehabilitator who lives in Meriden. “Years ago, a guy called me and wanted to know how to take care of a baby lion.”

Wulff, founder of the National Organization to Protect Alien Wildlife Species, said he once fielded a call from his brother who saw baby mountain lions for sale for $1,500 in Florida.

“There needs to be outright bans (across the country),” said Laura Simon, field director of the urban wildlife program for the Humane Society of the United States. “This checkerboard approach, of different laws state to state, doesn’t work.”

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, illegal trafficking in exotic animals is a global business worth close to $20 billion annually. Wulff said the local animal trade consists of creatures that come from surplus at zoos or circuses, the descendents of those animals, and from breeders.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has, in recent years, seized pets including exotic felines, alligators, rattlesnakes and various kinds of lizards, spokesman Dennis Schain said Sunday.

The DEP also holds an annual Exotic Animal Amnesty day at Beardsley Zoo, during which people can turn in wild animals without penalty. Schain said he does not recall any mountain lions recently turned in or seized.

The mountain lion killed Saturday died after it was struck by an SUV near Wilbur Cross Parkway Exit 55 at 1 a.m. Police identified the driver as Sigred Lacson, 40, of Newington. Lacson said Sunday that information released by state police was incorrect. She said she was not the driver and does not own the SUV involved. Continued...

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DEP officials said the animal killed is likely the same mountain lion spotted in Greenwich a few days ago, and that officials are in the process of performing tests to determine that. They are also attempting to determine if the cat had been kept in captivity before its death.

The eastern mountain lion was declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March. The closest confirmed population of mountain lions is in Missouri. DEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Frechette told the Register that the animal may have been held in captivity and either escaped or was released.

Readers who posted on the New Haven Register’s comment section were skeptical that the mountain lion could have traveled 50 miles from Greenwich to Milford, a route that would have required crossing the Housatonic River. DEP officials said mountain lions can quickly travel large distances; Simon said big cats can swim and use railroad beds and other passageways to cross water.

Other readers said they believed there is a mountain lion population in the state, and described sightings of the animals or their tracks. Eric Triffin, the former West Haven public health director who dresses as Carrotman to encourage healthy eating choices, wrote on Facebook: “I did see what I would have called a cougar up on West Rock one winter. I was sitting on the rocks near the edge, and then I noticed him behind me about 40 feet away! He left immediately as I turned and looked.”

In September 2007, motorists on Interstate 95 in Guilford reported a dead cougar on the side of the road, but by the time officials arrived, the carcass was gone. Weeks before that incident, residents in Shelton reported seeing a mountain lion, but the animal was later determined to be a pit bull dog.

Schain said the DEP periodically deals with sightings, but has never had any credible evidence of mountain lions. Simon said it would be “amazing” if there were more than one mountain lion roaming Connecticut, but it is “possible because of irresponsible human behaviors.”

Contact Amanda Pinto at 203-789-5734. Follow her on Twitter @ampinct. To receive breaking news first - simply text the word nhnews to 22700. Standard msg+data rates may apply.

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