TSA agents at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Tuesday found dead cougar inside a passenger's luggage.
The passenger was stopped at security when the cougar corpse was spotted through x-ray screeners. According to KSNV-TV, the passenger told TSA agents that he was a hunting in Utah and had appropriate Utah State Fish and Game tags for the cougar.
Airport officials temporarily held the man and his dead cougar until the information could be verified and it turned out that no laws were broken.
"It is not a crime to transport game that is legal to possess via airlines," Metropolitan Police Lt. David Gordon told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "However, airlines reserve the right to tell passengers they do not want to transport certain items."
And Nevada Division of Wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen said it's not unusual to transport animal carcasses through the airport.
"As long as that's a legally harvested animal, we don't have any problem with them passing through Nevada," Nielsen said.
Nonetheless, the man decided to send the dead cougar back home via FedEx instead of in his luggage.
Dead cougar found inside passenger's luggage at Las Vegas airport
The passenger was stopped at security when the cougar corpse was spotted through x-ray screeners. According to KSNV-TV, the passenger told TSA agents that he was a hunting in Utah and had appropriate Utah State Fish and Game tags for the cougar.
Airport officials temporarily held the man and his dead cougar until the information could be verified and it turned out that no laws were broken.
"It is not a crime to transport game that is legal to possess via airlines," Metropolitan Police Lt. David Gordon told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "However, airlines reserve the right to tell passengers they do not want to transport certain items."
And Nevada Division of Wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen said it's not unusual to transport animal carcasses through the airport.
"As long as that's a legally harvested animal, we don't have any problem with them passing through Nevada," Nielsen said.
Nonetheless, the man decided to send the dead cougar back home via FedEx instead of in his luggage.
Dead cougar found inside passenger's luggage at Las Vegas airport
