INVESTIGATION: Captive tigers in the U.S. outnumber those in the wild. It’s a problem.
You can get a USDA license to exhibit or breed gerbils, and then exhibit or breed any animal you want, including big cats. It’s easier to buy a tiger than to adopt a kitten from a local animal shelter.
SHARON GUYNUP: ‘At the turn of the 20th century, when Rudyard Kipling penned The Jungle Book, about 100,000 of the majestic cats roamed across Asia. They were wiped out by trophy hunts in India, the 1960s fashion craze for fur in the United States and Europe, the cats’ shrinking habitat, conflicts with people, and poaching. Today perhaps 3,900 remain in the wild. Tigers hover closer to extinction than any other big cat. After years of reporting on the illegal wildlife trade in Asia, I decided to look into tigers in America when I heard a talk by Carson Barylak, a policy specialist with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
She said there may be 5,000 to 10,000 captive tigers in the United States. No one, including government officials, knows exactly how many there are, and there is no overarching federal law regulating big cat ownership. Barylak showed a multicolored map illustrating a random patchwork of state laws. Some states ban private ownership. Others require a permit. Four have no statewide laws at all. In some places, it’s easier to buy a tiger than to adopt a kitten from a local animal shelter. You can get a USDA license to exhibit or breed gerbils—and then exhibit or breed any animal you want, including big cats.
Entertainment drives the breeding and trading of tigers in the U.S., specifically attractions that allow customers to pet, feed, and pose with tiger cubs. Commercial breeders provide a constant supply of babies. Within some states, such commercial activities are legal if properly licensed by the USDA, which is tasked with enforcing minimum care standards for animals under the Animal Welfare Act. But we found mistreatment of animals and a range of illicit activities, including wildlife trafficking, at many facilities we visited.
Tiger cubs are a gold mine, especially white ones. Tourists hug, bottle-feed, and snap pictures with adorable babies at roadside zoos, county fairs, and safari parks. A quick photo op or five-minute cuddle runs $10 to $100. A three-hour zoo tour with cub handling can run $700 a person. Guests often are told they’re helping to save wild tigers. They leave happy and post selfies on social media… The future of tigers in the U.S. remains to be seen. But this much is clear: As long as tourists seek to cuddle tiger cubs and be dazzled by hybrid cats—and as long as U.S. policies make owning dangerous cats so easy—the formula for abuse will remain in place’. SOURCE…
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