Studio City Man Charged With Abusing Tiger Cub Featured In Logan Paul Video

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA) – Social media star Logan Paul is at the center of yet another controversy after a Studio City man was charged Wednesday with abusing a tiger cub which had appeared in a YouTube video posted by Paul last year.

Nicholas Perkins, 32, was charged with four two counts of illegal possession of a tiger, along with one count each of mistreatment of a tiger and possession of anabolic steroids, according to the L.A city attorney's office.

Paul was not charged in the case.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators began investigating in October of 2017 after receiving an anonymous tip about a model who was posing with a tiger cub on Instagram. On Oct. 21, 2017, Paul posted a video of himself roughhousing with the same tiger cub and a small Pomeranian dog. It was not immediately clear if Perkins was also in the video.

Thanks to the video, investigators were able to pinpoint the cub's location and identify Perkins as its owner. The nearly 15-minute video has received more than 8.2 million hits on YouTube.

On Nov. 9, 2017, authorities raided Perkins home and seized the cub, the DA's office reports. According to prosecutors, the cub was being kept in "poor living conditions" and was being fed "kitten milk replacement formula with a baby bottle."

The cub was taken to a cat sanctuary in north L.A. County where it has since made a full recovery.

A search warrant to seize the cub was executed on the defendant's home on November 9, 2017 and the animal was taken into custody. During the search, there was extensive evidence of the animal's poor living conditions and the presence of anabolic steroids. The defendant was allegedly feeding the tiger cub kitten milk replacement formula with a baby bottle.

The tiger cub was placed in a large cat rescue and sanctuary facility in north Los Angeles County and has made a full recovery, the DA's office.

If convicted, Perkins faces a maximum sentence of two years and six months in jail.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 10.

Paul has been under increasing scrutiny since the fallout from a video he uploaded in December 2017 of a dead body in Japan's so-called "suicide forest."