Busch Wildlife's latest addition escaped the illegal pet trade and greets you with a 'Meow?'

JUPITER FARMS — Charlie the mountain lion's future looked grim. He was stuck in the illegal pet trade in California, where he was declawed on all four paws and almost unlawfully sold to a private owner.

Then state officials rescued him. He is finally happy and safe in his new permanent home at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary.

Charlie, who is 5 years old with thick tan-and-white fur, green eyes and weighs 182 pounds, made the trek from California at the end of March.

That was when Amy Kight, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary’s executive director, and operations director Christen Mason drove a transit van to collect Charlie from Conservation Ambassadors, a nonprofit wildlife center which temporarily housed him for a few years.

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Kight described the three-day road trip through a windstorm, sandstorm and snow as unexpectedly peaceful, which she credits to Charlie’s calm demeanor.

“It was the funniest thing,” Kight said. “Everybody, especially our moms, was scared like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re going to be in the car with a mountain lion!’ But he was fine. We didn’t even sedate him.”

Mason described Charlie as a personable and talkative cat who likes to visit with people at the front of his enclosure.

He has settled in comfortably at Busch Wildlife, where one other mountain lion lives: Tomala, who got there in 2017 after he was rescued from a forest fire in California.

Kight said Charlie was most likely born into captivity. Because he doesn’t have claws, he would not be able to catch his own food in the wild.

“He just never learned how to be a wild animal,” Kight said.

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Charlie loves to meow to express his feelings.

The Busch Wildlife staff originally planned to change his name to Charles or Chuck when he got there because they have an otter with the same name, but whenever Charlie hears his name, he promptly replies: “Meow?”

“We thought, ‘We can’t change your name! You totally know you’re a Charlie,’ ” Kight said.

Busch Wildlife staff plan to house Charlie for the rest of his life. He will spend his days getting exercise, seeing people and eating plenty of chicken, quail, fish, rabbit and rat meat.

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Illegal pet trade fueled by how trendy an exotic animal becomes

Kight estimated that about a dozen of the sanctuary’s permanent animals — of which there are about 200 — were rescued from the illegal pet trade.

She said the trade’s popularity “ebbs and flows” as different exotic animals become trendy.

Many mountain lions — also known as cougars or panthers, depending on geographic location — end up in the illegal pet trade from the “cub petting” industry, Kight said.

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This is where people breed them as kittens for photo opportunities and interaction with people for a profit until they grow bigger and become a safety threat.

Then, they try to sell them on Craigslist or underground sites, where they often end up in the wrong hands, Kight said.

“People will see something on social media, have an affinity toward a certain animal, and think it would be a good idea to try to make it a pet,” Kight said. “Some buy the animal and don’t even realize they’re breaking the law.”

She said Florida has “relatively strict” laws against this, which require people to have a permit to possess almost any exotic animal.

Busch Wildlife does not currently expect to welcome other new permanent residents in the near future, but its staff is ready to help animals whenever they can, Kight said.

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Busch Wildlife Sanctuary welcomes mountain lion named Charlie