Wildlife and Fisheries agent is met by lawyer at nutria owners’ business in Metairie | Entertainment/Life

An agent of the Louisiana Office of Fish and Wildlife was satisfied by a attorney Friday when he confirmed up at a Metairie organization to go over the destiny of the owners’ pet nutria. 

Neuty, a 22-pound nutria who lives with the Lacoste family members, was nowhere to be seen. 

Denny Lacoste spoke at the rear of shut doorways at the store with his law firm, who did not give his title, although the agent stood exterior an official black pickup truck in the parking large amount.

When Lacoste and the attorney emerged, they declined to remark.  

Two many years back, Neuty was a wild infant that lived in the West Esplanade Avenue canal. When the palm-sized animal was wounded even though crossing the highway, Bucktown residents Denny and Myra Lacoste rescued the motherless critter and nursed it to overall health.

More than time, Neuty grew to become a loved ones pet. Neuty swims in the Lacostes’ pool, rides in the household automobile with its head out the window like a beagle, sleeps in a toilet in their household and accompanies Denny Lacoste to the seafood shop.

On the other hand, it is illegal to keep nutria as pets, and LDWF explained Thursday that Neuty would be confiscated and despatched to a zoo in Baton Rouge.

Contacted by phone, a LDWF spokesperson stated that as of Friday morning, the company experienced not taken possession of Neuty, and did not know the wherabouts of the the controversial critter. 

The spokesperson did not weigh in on what the LDWF agent and the Lacoste’s law firm experienced reviewed. “It is really a issue that is ongoing and we are going to make a statement when it arrives to an conclude,” the spokesman claimed.  

Lent is a busy time at the shop. Clients came and went. One particular female chastised the LDWF agent for the predicament, then commented, “They ought to be out searching alligators.”

Public response

Meanwhile, several social media commenters quickly confirmed guidance for the Lacostes and their plight.

Among the 258 responses that piled up on the NOLA.com Fb site beneath the tale, this was standard:

“We are living with so a great deal heartbreak in this environment, especially in Southeast Louisiana. These people did a very good, heartfelt deed. They took treatment of a helpless creature, and did no harm to any individual. Let them retain their fur child.”

On a web site termed improve.org, far more than 9,000 individuals have evidently signed a petition pleading with the LDWF to not confiscate the creature.

The Cost-free Neuty petition would seem quite honest, even though it originated with the Neutral Floor Information, which describes itself as an online satirical information, parody and entertainment publication.

Unloved

Compared with Neuty, most nutria are unloved in South Louisiana. They are a rapid-breeding, burrow-digging, root-ingesting, amphibious rodent that was after revered for its magnificent fur, but has come to be a nuisance. The “swamp rat” behaviors exacerbates Louisiana wetlands erosion.

The invasive species originated in South American and was distribute across the world by fur ranchers. Escapees have infested Louisiana’s wetlands considering the fact that the 1930s.

For two many years there has been a bounty on nutria across the point out. In accordance to a LDWF spokesman, hunters may well get rid of the animals and exchange their tails for a $6 reward.

A lot more than 200,000 of the “swamp rats” were being exterminated in the 2021-2022 searching year.

In many years earlier, Neuty’s sort undermined the financial institutions of the Jefferson Parish canal technique so terribly that the sheriff dispatched a SWAT team with rifles to exterminate as quite a few associates of Neuty’s extended family as they could place.

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