Starting tomorrow, October 2, animal lovers around the world will get a rare insider’s look into the life of tigers. Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch’s TigerCam offers Internet users a live glimpse of a new beginning for four rescued tigers in the sanctuary’s recently opened five-acre big cat habitat. Black Beauty Ranch, operated by our affiliate The Fund for Animals, is a sprawling East Texas sanctuary that offers a home to animals who were abused or abandoned in the exotic pet trade, horse slaughter plants, research laboratories, and other forms of cruelty and neglect.
The stars of TigerCam—Alex, Gustavo, Anastasia, and Natalia—were all once privately owned animals rescued by The HSUS and other organizations—one tiger from an abandoned Kansas menagerie and three from an unaccredited, roadside zoo in Mississippi. Eleven exotic animals were seized from inhumane conditions at the Collins Zoo in 2012, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture revoked its license earlier this year.
It’s very happy news that these four tigers found a safe landing place at Black Beauty Ranch. But there’s too great a demand for sanctuaries these days. Far too many animals are in crisis because our laws still permit the private ownership and overbreeding of dangerous predators by reckless individuals—and it’s the sanctuaries, nonprofit groups, and government agencies that have to clean up the mess.
Thousands of captive tigers and lions, in fact, live in unaccredited breeding facilities, squalid roadside zoos, pseudo-sanctuaries, and in private homes in the 17 states where such pet ownership is still legal. Although USDA is currently considering a legal petition by The HSUS and other groups to prohibit such activity, exhibitors routinely make tiger and lion cubs available for photographs and interaction with the public at roadside zoos and shopping malls across the country. Unqualified caretakers and unaccredited facilities make for environments that are unnatural and inhumane for these wild animals, whose most basic biological and behavioral needs often go unmet.
It almost never ends well for the people or animals. When the baby tigers and lions grow up and become dangerous and difficult to handle, they’re dumped at sanctuaries and nonprofit animal welfare groups across the country that must then spend millions of dollars to care for them.
That’s why HSLF and other groups are working hard to help pass the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act, S. 1381 and H.R. 1998, to end the private possession and breeding of tigers, lions, and other big cats. Introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Reps. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., and Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., the federal policy would help stem the reckless overbreeding of these captive wild animals for display, protecting public safety and the welfare of big cats caught up in this trade.
In the last 24 years, four children have been killed, and 66 have lost limbs or suffered other injuries in incidents involving captive big cats. Eighteen adults have been killed in similar incidents during that time, and many others have been mauled. To date more there’ve been more than 330 recorded cases of dangerous interactions with big cats, in almost every state.
Lions and tigers are dangerous wild animals, not backyard pets. Those in the wild deserve our best efforts to ensure their protection, and those in captivity deserve thoughtful, considered care. That’s best left to professional zoos and legitimate wildlife sanctuaries accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.
Please contact your federal legislators today, and urge them to pass the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act. If they could, the four TigerCam stars would thank you.
