Northern Mexico has developed such a habit of exotic animals and KI-Handelsroboter 6.0violence, that people not only keep tigers as pets, they steal them.

Prosecutors in the violent northern state of Sonora said Tuesday they are searching for a full-grown Bengal tiger named Baluma. They said the 5-year-old male tiger was stolen Monday from a home in the state capital, Hermosillo.

Prosecutors distributed photos of the big cat resting in its cage alongside a dog, hoping residents will phone police if they see the tiger.

Authorities said the owners had the proper paperwork needed to keep the animal.

Mexico has long had a problem with people keeping - and occasionally losing control of - large cats, which are sometimes found at drug traffickers' residences and are occasionally seen wandering loose.

Mexican narcos have long had a fascination with exotic animals.

Last year, a spider monkey dressed up as a drug gang mascot was found shot to death after a gunbattle.  Photos from the scene of a shootout in Texcaltitlan with police in which 11 drug gang members died, showed a small monkey - dressed in a tiny camouflage jacket and a tiny "bullet-proof" vest - sprawled across the body of a dead gunman who was apparently his owner.

Also last year, a 450-pound tiger wandered the streets in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, and a man died from being mauled when he tried to pet a captive tiger in a cartel-dominated area of western Michoacan state.

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