Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents plan to confiscate a Bucktown couple’s pet nutria because it’s illegal to possess one, the rodent’s owner said Thursday.
On Thursday evening two officers arrives at Dennis’ seafood store in Metairie seeking Neuty, a 22-pound nutria that had become something of a media sensation.
Two years ago, Neuty was a wild infant nutria that lived in the West Esplanade Avenue canal. When the palm-sized rodent was injured while crossing the road, Bucktown residents Denny and Myra Lacoste rescued the wild motherless animal and nursed it to health.
Over time, the creature, part of an invasive species that exacerbates Louisiana wetlands erosion, became a family pet. Neuty swims in the Lacostes’ pool, rides in the family car with its head out the window like a beagle, sleeps in a bathroom in their home and accompanies Denny Lacoste to the seafood shop that he owns near Clearview Parkway.
On Wednesday, feature stories in The Times-Picayune and on WWL-TV reported on the Lacostes’ relationship with the rodent, which now weighs 22 pounds.
The Lacostes said Wildlife and Fisheries agents arrived at the seafood store Thursday at about 4 p.m., but the couple’s son had taken the orange-toothed rat for a ride. Dennis Lacoste said he was given a ticket for “possession of a wild quadruped without a license,” and instructed to turn over the animal as soon as possible.
Which he plans to do.
Agents assured him the rodent would not be harmed. He said they promised Neuty would be sent to a rehabilitation center in Baton Rouge then given to the Baton Rouge Zoo.
He said he was unaware keeping a nutria as a pet is illegal. He said that when he first brought the wounded creature home, he contacted Wildlife and Fisheries and was told that keeping a nutria was not advisable but not illegal.
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ enforcement division would not comment on its investigation.
A 22-pound nutria swims in a family’s pool, sleeps in the bathroom and makes them laugh
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