BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – After much public outcry, state officials are now saying they will let a Louisiana couple hold a 22-pound nutria — a button-eyed rodent with orange teeth and a rat’s tail that’s commonly considered a wetland. harmful pest – as a pet who frolics with his dog, cuddles in his arms and swims in the family pool.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a statement Friday that Myra and Denny Lacoste may apply for a permit so they can legally keep neuty the nutria in their New Orleans home, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. Montoucet said the details of the permit were being finalized.
The announcement came after more than 17,000 people signed an online petition demanding that the state leave Neuty and his family alone.
“I think that’s a good conclusion for all sides,” said Louisiana Secretary of Wildlife and Fisheries Jack Montoucet.
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The rodent has lived with the Lacostes for more than two years. The wildlife department first said Thursday that it had arranged for the animal’s transport to the Baton Rouge Zoo, citing state law that prohibits owning a nutria, which is considered an invasive species. But after the response, the agency provided special conditions that allowed the family to keep the nutria as a pet within the law, the newspaper said.
“We’re overjoyed,” said Myra Lacoste.
Denny Lacoste encountered the injured animal in 2020 when his siblings died on the road. He and his wife hand-fed the animal until it could eat on its own. Then they raised it as a pet.
Now the animal is a social media star, featured in TikTok videos and featured in a New Orleans Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate video being lovingly held by Denny Lacoste, with a towel over it scurrying the ground and munching a raw crawfish. Lacoste told the newspaper that Neuty even likes to ride in the car with his head out the window.
Myra Lacoste said she and her husband admitted to several stipulations, including regular veterinary check-ups and keeping their pet in cages at the family fish store.
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Introduced to North America more than a century ago, nutria are considered a troublesome invasive species in Louisiana. Their appetite for wetland vegetation and burrowing into levees hinder flood control, harm agriculture, and contribute to the loss of coastal wetlands. At various times, officials have put bounties on their heads and encouraged hunting them for their pelts and even food.
They are sometimes derided as “coypu rats”. However, they’ve also become such a familiar part of the Louisiana landscape and lore that a minor league baseball team in New Orleans once employed costumed actors as larger-than-life caricatures of the creatures – Boudreaux and Clotilde – as mascots.
Now that the ordeal is over, Myra Lacoste said, “We want to hold him and cuddle him.”
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