Man with civet cats held

India: Bhadra wildlife division forest authorities arrested a person who allegedly had two civet kittens. 
K Raju planned to prepare civet coffee from the poop of these kittens and sell it in the market, said forest officials. 

He had kept the cats in a small cage. These kittens have been sent to Tyavarekoppa lion safari.

Speaking to The Times of India, Nagesh Balegar, range forest officer, Sakrebailu, said that Raju is a resident of Tanagebailu village in Tarikere taluk. “We received information about the civet kittens being kept by a villager. I sent a team of officers led by Dy RFO who arrested the accused and seized the cage and rescued the kittens,” he said. The kittens are around four to five months old.

Raju told the officials that he had found the cats in the forest. It is suspected that he was feeding coffee beans to these kittens to prepare the civet coffee. Forest officials also suspect that the accused was collecting the urine of these kittens which he allegedly used to spray in the temple prasadam, said Balegar.

Civet coffee is produced from the coffee beans digested by the civet cat. The feces of the animal is then collected, processed and sold.

(Source: The Times of India)