Rare Cheetah Beaten to Death by Villagers in Tharparkar

Residents of a village in Tharparkar, Pakistan, were reported to have killed a rare cheetah on Tuesday after it had attacked and killed a number of their sheep and goats.

According to the villagers, they had contacted officials from the wildlife department in an effort to have the predator captured alive, but received no assistance.

In response, the villagers chased and killed the cheetah themselves. The deputy conservator of the wildlife department, Mir Aijaz Talpur, stated that officials had requested expert animal rescuers to capture the cheetah alive, but the villagers killed the animal before they could arrive.

Talpur also said that legal action would be taken against those involved in the killing. This incident follows a similar one in which a cheetah was killed by residents of another village after it crossed into Pakistan from India.