The previous owner of a tiger that was discovered in a Houston home by someone who'd gone there to smoke marijuana has been charged with animal cruelty.

Brittany Marie Garza, 24, was arrested Wednesday on a misdemeanor count of cruelty to nonlivestock animals. She was released from the Harris County jail after posting $100 bond.

Authorities found the male tiger in a "rinky-dink" cage in a garage in southeastern Houston on Feb. 11 after the anonymous pot-smoking tipster called 311 to report the animal. A dispatcher asked whether the caller had actually seen a tiger or was under the influence of drugs.

1 / 3A tiger that was found in a southeast Houston garage awaited transport to a rescue facility in February.(Godofredo A. Vasquez / Houston Chronicle) 2 / 3Authorities arrested the tiger's former owner, Brittany Marie Garza, on an animal-cruelty charge this week.(The Humane Society) 3 / 3The male tiger, who is being renamed, is now in the permanent custody of an East Texas animal sanctuary.(The Humane Society)

When officers arrived, they found the tiger in "deplorable conditions" without access to food, water or light, according to a probable-cause affidavit. "A mere screwdriver" was holding the cage doors closed, and the tiger was resting on hay soaked in urine.

After the tiger was removed from the cage, authorities found that the substance lining the bottom of the cage was composed of straw "intermixed with layers of trash, feces, urine and rotting meat," the affidavit says. Authorities also saw maggots and other insects, as well as what appeared to be mold.

A veterinarian determined that the tiger was about a year and a half old and had stunted muscle development due to long periods of confinement.

The tiger was later moved to the 1,400-acre Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in East Texas, which currently houses one other tiger.

Earlier this month, the animal sanctuary was granted permanent custody of the tiger. It is now taking a vote on what to rename the animal, who was formerly known as Raja.

Just before her arrest, Garza told KTRK-TV that she had raised the tiger since he was a cub, including bottle-feeding him, and that she had been in the process of finding him a new home when authorities seized him.

"I feel like I lost my child," she told the station. "I think about him every day."

A bill introduced in the current Texas legislative session, SB 641, aims to prohibit the ownership of "dangerous wild animals," including baboons, bears, cheetahs, chimpanzees, cougars, leopards, lions and tigers.