No one even knows how many of the big cats are in the United States
Tony the Tiger, a 550-pound Siberian-Bengal mix, lives in a cage at a Louisiana truck stop.
(© FTTT)
By
Max Kutner
Smithsonian Magazine
Clayton James Eller
loved going to his aunt’s house in Millers Creek, North Carolina, where
he got to visit Tigger, her 317-pound pet Bengal tiger. One December
day in 2003, ten-year-old C.J. was shoveling snow near Tigger’s outdoor
pen when the animal attacked him from an opening in the chain-link fence
and dragged him under. C.J.’s uncle grabbed his rifle and shot the
tiger, but the boy died before he reached the hospital.
Tiger attacks in the United States
are always dramatic news—there were 27 reported between 1990 and 2006,
with seven people and most of the tigers killed. But maulings aren’t the
only problem arising from the perhaps surprising fact that there are
more captive tigers in the U.S. than there are wild tigers on earth.
Conservationists
estimate that about 3,200 wild tigers remain around the world, while
there are some 5,000 tigers in captivity in the U.S., according to the
World Wildlife Fund. Even that number is probably low, says Carole
Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Tampa,
Florida, because reporting is “based on the honor system, and we’re
dealing with a lot of people that are really dishonorable.” Edward J.
Grace, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s deputy assistant director
for law enforcement, estimates that the nation is home to more than
10,000 captive tigers. Only about 350 of those, says the WWF, are held
in facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
For the thousands of tigers in
private hands, from those in big-top circuses and roadside attractions
to others in backyard dens, the regulations are inconsistent at best.
Six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, Alabama
and West Virginia) place no restrictions on owning a tiger; 14 states
require a permit; and 30 states prohibit ownership, though in some of
those states people have been known to flout the law, as in the famous
case of the man who kept a tiger in his apartment in Harlem.
One of the problems associated with these
captive tigers, animal welfare advocates say, is that many of the
creatures suffer. For example, the popular and stunningly beautiful
white tigers—all descendants of a single, anomalous albino Bengal named
Mohan, captured in 1951, and bred with his daughter—continue to be
inbred with immediate family members to disabling effect; one frequent
defect is severe strabismus, or crossed eyes, which hampers vision and
coordination. Moreover, animal rescuers point out that many privately
owned tigers live in deplorable conditions. Some tigers spend lifetimes
in small, unsanitary enclosures. And wildlife advocates have accused
tiger cub exhibitors of depriving the cats of sleep and exercise, and
endangering both animals and people. One well-known captive animal is
Tony the Tiger, a 550-pound Siberian-Bengal mix who has spent more than a
decade in a cage at a truck stop in Louisiana. Baskin has been working
with the Animal Legal Defense Fund to bring Tony to her sanctuary, but
not everyone thinks his owner should be forced to send him. A Facebook
group called “Keep Tony Where He Is” has more than 10,000 “Likes,” and
Tony’s owner has called animal rights activists terrorists.
Some advocates argue that
America’s other tiger problem, to put it bluntly, is hypocrisy, at least
on the world stage. In China, a booming market for tiger parts has
fueled the growth of legal “tiger farms,” where the animals are raised
to be slaughtered for luxury décor (a tiger pelt can run tens of
thousands of dollars) and pricey tiger-bone wine (up to $135 for a
half-liter bottle). U.S. conservation groups and others have criticized
the tiger farms both on humane grounds and for stoking demand for
tigers—including poached wild animals. But Chinese officials dispute the
claim that farmed tigers threaten animals in the wild, and, in any
case, Americans have little credibility on the subject, given our own
large but untallied population of neglected tigers and the patchwork of weak or nonexistent protections, according to J.A. Mills, a wildlife conservationist and author of the new book Blood of the Tiger. “U.S.
tigers have a direct bearing on what China does,” she says, “and what
China does has a direct bearing on whether wild tigers survive.”
So some advocates are heartened that
America is trying to get its regulatory act together. The Fish and
Wildlife Service has long overseen buying and selling “pure” tiger
subspecies (such as Bengals and Amurs) across state lines, but the
agency has limited authority because most privately held tigers are
mixed breeds; a 2011 move to expand the agency’s authority over all
tigers is reportedly close to being approved. Even more sweeping is the
proposed Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act, which would formally
restrict tiger ownership to facilities accredited by the Association of
Zoos and Aquariums. (A grandfather clause would allow unaccredited
owners to keep their tigers as long as they register with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.) The bipartisan bill was introduced in 2013
and may come up again in the new Congressional term. Some tiger owners
and businesses feel the bill is overly restrictive, but proponents say
it would go a long way toward closing the gap between what we say about
the treatment of captive tigers and what we’re actually willing to do
about it.
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