[IMG ID: A fullbody drawing of a woman in shorts holding a staff. A yellow tiger with lightning-like stripes is behind her with a halo. Clouds are in the background with cartoon-y lightning bolts coming out of them./END ID]
This morning I learned that an estimated 10-20,000 big cats are kept as “pets” in the United States. 5,000 of these are tigers, which exceeds the number of wild tigers left: about 3,900.
This photo is from a story that recently made the news and is just one of countless instances where these animals are found in basement or garage cages, often agitated and living in deplorable conditions. These “pets” are typically owned by people who have no knowledge or room to raise such an animal. Once they become too big or ferocious to handle, they are further isolated and neglected.
There are also yearly cases of killings and maulings if these animals get loose, posing a threat to both owners and their neighbors alike.
In response, Representative Jeff Dunham (D-CA) has reintroduced the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 1818) to prohibit ownership of big cats by private individuals and unqualified exhibitors. Please, tell your U.S. representative to cosponsor this commonsense legislation today.
