This provided provided by the Fire Brigade of Northern France a panther walks on the gutter of a building in Armentieres, northern France, Wednesday Sept.18, 2019. Sapeurs-Pompiers du Nord via AP)

A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops.

The pair were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby.

The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple's window.

Police made a cordon in case it jumped, while rescuers entered the building calmly so as not to shock the big cat, BBC News reported at the time. After securing a perimeter, the fire service said the panther went inside one of the houses that enabled workers to be able to trap it, The Associated Press reported.

Authorities recaptured the panther, which weighed between 55 to 65 pounds by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home.

No injuries were reported during the animal's time on the loose.

The court in the northern city of Lille condemned the 41-year-old man in the couple to 18 months in jail, which was suspended, and a $17,000 fine.

He was also barred from keeping animals for five years.

The woman, also 41, received a four-month suspended sentence and a two-year animal possession ban.

Keeping Louise was "tantamount to species trafficking," argued Graziella Dode, a lawyer for an animal rights group that joined the case as a civil party.

Xavier Bacquet, representing another foundation, called the crime mistreatment, arguing that the animal's "physiological needs" could not be met in captivity.

The owner told French daily La Voix du Nord in 2019 that he no longer saw it as a panther.

"She was like a big, affectionate baby who just wanted to be cuddled," he said.

He told the court that he'd bought the animal for 2,500 euros from a travelling community.

Kader Laghouati from the Animal Protection League in Lille told La Voix du Nord newspaper at the time that the anmal been domesticated by its owner and was not at all aggressive, BBC News reported. Its claws had been clipped and it was in good health, according to BBC News.

Prosecutors told the court he'd already been convicted in other cases for theft, violence, and drug dealing, as well for illegally keeping a pet monkey.

After its recapture, the panther was taken to the Maubeuge Zoo, from where it was briefly stolen a few days later.

The feline, renamed Akilla, now lives at the Stichting Leeuw big cat sanctuary in the Netherlands, where one of its caretakers Wendy Karsten said it is doing well.

"It has a lot of fun, is playful and interacts well with the neighboring panther through the fence," Karsten told AFP.


This provided provided by the Fire Brigade of Northern France shows a panther on the gutter of a building in Armentieres, northern France, Wednesday Sept.18, 2019. Sapeurs-Pompiers du Nord via AP

Source