Photo source: Video capture
Images of a free Siberian tiger in the yard of a man from Dâmboviţa county went viral on TikTok. It is the same household where, last summer, the Environmental Guard found an illegal zoo with bears, deer and lions. Following the appearance of the images, the police announced that they had opened a criminal case in which investigations are being carried out.
The man who has the Siberian tiger owns a menagerie in the town of Picior de Munte in Dâmboviţa, near Târgovişte, notes Agerpres. The owner made a TikTok account to publicly display the wild animals.
The TikTok account on which the images were posted is called IWF Menajerie Dâmboviţa. The tiger is filmed up close, when it walks through the snow, and there are other animals in the yard.
“Siberian tiger on the prowl. All the stags and mouflons have run away from him… Wait, Dad. Shere Khan! Stinking,” the man on the video shouts at the tiger.
The images were also taken by the Prahovean Observatory.
Police reaction
Following the appearance of the images, IPJ Dâmbovița announced that it had opened a criminal case.
“At the level of the Dâmboviţa County Police Inspectorate – the Public Order Service, there is a criminal case being drawn up regarding the crime of possessing, transporting, selling or exchanging for any purpose, as well as offering for exchange or sale specimens taken from nature (species of community interest), in any of the stages of their biological cycle, in which investigations are being carried out, under the coordination of a prosecutor from the Public Prosecutor's Office Găesti Court”, stated IPJ Dâmboviţa, quoted by Agerpres.
The backyard zoo
In July 2025, the Environmental Guard descended here, and the control revealed that the man had illegally set up a zoo in his yard, in which several wild animals were kept, including bears, monkeys, deer and lions. The owner also received visitors for tickets that ended up costing up to 100 lei.
At the time of the control, the owner could not provide the Environmental Guard commissioners with the provenance documents of the owned animals, some of them being strictly protected.
“Consequently, three contraventional sanctions were applied: two fines totaling 120,000 lei and a warning. At the same time, 12 firm measures were ordered to remedy the non-conformities, with clear deadlines, some with immediate applicability, others with a permanent character”, the National Environmental Guard announced at that time.
Also at that time it was specified that “the animals remain in the custody of the owner without the right of alienation until he provides proof of their origin”.
