Fishing cat trapped by duck farmer in Sylhet rescued after capture video goes viral

Officials of the Sylhet Sadar administration have rescued a fishing cat that was captured using an iron cage as a trap by a local duck farmer today (19 March) after a video of the wild animal's capture went viral on social media.

The wild animal was later released into the Sylhet Tilagor Eco Park, Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Nasrin Akhter said.

"Legal action will be taken against those involved in wildlife capture and torture," she added.

The fishing cat was captured by Saiful Amin, a duck farmer of Lamargaon village at Mugolgaon union in Sylhet Sadar upazila, on Sunday (17 March).

"I have a duck farm. Every night, fishing cats attack my farm and eat my ducks. They've eaten almost 500 ducks from the farm so far," Saiful claimed.

Later, a video of the captured fishing cat was uploaded on Facebook from a page named 'Sylheter Magazine' detailing how the animal was captured. The videos also show the animal was being tortured.

The video went viral on social media and came to the attention of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon's Sylhet unit General Secretary Abdul Karim Kim, who called on local authorities to take action in this regard in a Facebook post.

"Such fishing cats are often caught in the Sylhet region. We are trying to teach people to hand over wild animals to the forest department even if they are caught.

"However, people will be more enthusiastic about arresting and torturing wild animals if such live videos with detailed narratives on capture are posted on Facebook. The person who committed such an act should also be punished," Kim said.