SAN ANTONIO – A woman who lied to authorities about how she came across a pair of bobcat kittens was issued a criminal citation, San Antonio Animal Care Services officials confirmed Tuesday.
Jane Dinscore initially told ACS officers that she found the kittens in an alley. Dinscore eventually told KSAT, and investigators, the real story.
“My brother called and he said he had some Bengal kittens at his house in McCoy,” Dinscore said.
Dinscore initially told Animal Care Services the kittens were found in an alley because she was afraid her brother would get in trouble for having exotic animals.
Her brother, James Dinscore, actually found the kittens in the attic on a shack on his property and called his sister, asking if she wanted one.
James originally thought the animals were Bengal kittens.
Jane said she didn’t want a kitten, but her brother told her one of the animals was sick and she knew her niece had been wanting a kitten so she took them both home, she said in an interview.
Jane, her sister and her niece were all bitten and scratched by the bobcat kittens over the next several days, at which point, she called ACS and reported finding the kittens in an alley.
Despite Dinscore’s good intentions, Diana Reyes, chief executive and development officer with Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, said the behavior is inexcusable.
“We just wish they would have had the moral courage to be honest because the window of opportunity of reuniting them with their mother becomes slimmer and slimmer every day,” Reyes said.
The ultimate goal is still to reunite the kittens with their mother, but if that doesn’t happen, the kittens will stay at WRR for approximately one year before being released on a protected site.
“We have a high success rate with bobcats that come into the wildlife rescue,” Reyes said.
Reyes said the kittens were taken from their mother, who would have taught them how to be bobcats. She also said their mother was probably out hunting for food, only to come back to find her kittens were gone.
“That’s a tragedy,” she said,
ORIGINAL STORY: San Antonio rescuers bitten after mistaking bobcats for domestic kittens
Reyes made it very clear that calling ACS was the right move, but lying about when and where the kittens came from essentially closed the fragile window of opportunity to return them to their natural habitat.
"Humans are the number one predator to wild animals," Reyes said.
The bobcat kittens are doing fine, according to Reyes.
Interesting to note -- the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation logo features a bobcat.
It’s best to call a wildlife rehabilitation center or Animal Care Services at 311 instead of intervening with an animal that may need help.
Lynn Cuny, founder and president of Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc. issued the following statement:
"The real story of these bobcat kittens is one of tragedy, not one of “cute babies”. These two infant’s lives were altered the moment they were stolen from their mother. Not only will they never know her loving care but these bobcats now have to be raised by humans, their number one predator. Though we trust they will do well, the fact is that no wild animal baby should ever have to make such a traumatic adjustment and suffer the trauma of being orphaned."
WATCH: Click to see video of the kittens provided by Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation.
ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said criminal citations, which are generally around $300, are fines set by a judge.