TIGERS AS PETS

There are thousands more tigers living in the United States than there are living in the wild. Texas has the largest tiger population outside India. As of 2001, there were at least 2,370 tigers in Texas compared to around 3,000 in India.

In some states in the United States you don’t need a license to own a tiger, which can be purchased over the Internet for as little as a few hundred dollars. Many of them are kept in backyards. In Texas you can sometimes see them riding around in the back of pick up trucks. One man, “Jungle” Jay Riggs, a former handler of police dogs, has 40 of them and took care of Mike Tyson’s four tigers while he was waiting for a new house to be built. Some drug dealers keep them as “guard cats.”

White tigers are particularly sought after by tiger pet owners. None are known to exist in the wild but 300 or so are kept in captivity. A prime, blue-eyed specimen goes for around $25,000. In August 2004, a blue-eyed white stripeless tiger was born in Spain as a result of a genetic mutation. There are only about 20 such animals in the world. Its parents were normal Bengal tigers.

Many pet tigers were purchased as cute cuddly cubs and then were abandoned when they became unmanageable adults. Some shelters in Texas have so many tigers they can’t take any more. Tigers are expensive to take care. Building a pen and cage to keep them in can cost $10,000 or more. Fresh meat for a couple animals can cost more than $100 a week. Medical care is expensive and hard to find.

Tigers in the U.S.

Tigers are among the most popular large exotic animal in the U.S. Josie Glausiusz wrote in Natural History: 7,000 to 15,000 of them live in private roadside zoos, circuses, sanctuaries, farms, and backyards in the U.S. Owners are often deluded into thinking that they can tame the creatures, treating them like house cats, perhaps attracted by the challenge. Yet even house cats, which have been domesticated for thousands of years, will reach out and swat their human companions. What happens when a six-month-old, sixty-pound beast with claws and flesh-slicing incisors takes a swipe? At that moment, a would-be tiger trainer must realize that the animal is wild, not some docile furball. Captivity does not equal domesticity. [Source: Josie Glausiusz, Natural History magazine]

Private owners often cite statistics about the dire straits of tigers in the wild as reasons for supporting a growing population of caged tigers. In captivity, large exotic cats breed easily as long as they are given a steady supply of fresh meat and a minimum of space. The Animal Finders' Guide, a newsletter published eighteen times a year by Pat Hoctor, a former breeder in Prairie Creek, Indiana, shows that there is no shortage of both cubs and adults up for grabs in the U.S. A seller in Texas, for example, offers "free — two male tigers two 1/2 years old, like women; one female tiger, six years old, likes men and women; cages with cats." Another advertisement, from a breeder in Oregon, offers a “Barbary lion and caracal kittens;” a third, in California, is selling a “rare Asian leopard cat female, nine weeks old, bottle raised.” More startling still: the price tag of a tiger cub — between $300 and $900 — is comparable to that of a poodle puppy registered with the American Kennel Club.

The astonishing ease with which you can buy, sell, or give away a tiger — or other big cat — attests to the mess of laws covering exotic cat ownership in the United States. The 1973 Endangered Species Act bars the import of tigers into the country, but does not forbid private ownership of those bred here. The USDA issues licenses to exhibitors of wild and exotic animals, but pet owners are not eligible to apply for one. In 2003, a watershed federal law was passed: the Captive Wildlife Safety Act bans the interstate shipment of lions, tigers, and bears for the pet trade. However, the law does not forbid the breeding and intrastate delivery of the animals for non-commercial purposes. State and local laws vary widely and contain numerous loopholes that can confuse even the most earnest pet owners. Some states have banned exotic cat ownership completely, while others don't even require the animals to be registered.

Laws Regarding Owning and Transporting Tigers in the U.S.

The laws regarding the ownership of pet tigers and other exotic pets in the U.S. are confusing, inconsistent, vary from state to state and that many people are ignorant of them. Josie Glausiusz wrote in Natural History: Breeders and self-styled conservationists also appear unconcerned about the rules banning interstate shipment. “How many tigers do you want? I'll send them to you. “ Brian Werner jokingly offered when I interviewed him by phone from New York. [Source: Josie Glausiusz, Natural History magazine]

Werner is the executive director of the Tiger Missing Link Foundation, which operates Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge in Tyler, Texas, and vice president of the Feline Conservation Federation (FCF), an advocacy group that represents private owners. “It's legal for me to send tigers to you as long as I'm not selling them. I am licensed by the USDA, by the way. But even if I weren't, I could give them to you.” In fact, a USDA-licensed facility can only transport an exotic cat across state lines to another licensed facility, or to an organization exempt from the prohibitions of the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, such as a nonprofit sanctuary. Violation carries a prison term of up to five years, but this does not deter many people. Tiger checks at state lines aren't exactly common.

In the past few years, states have started moving toward more control. In 2004, for example, the New York State legislature amended its environmental conservation law to ban the breeding of any wild cat species or the sale of wild felines as pets — a precaution likely taken in the wake of the 2003 case of Ming, a 400-pound tiger confined to a Harlem apartment. Ming now lives at Noah's Lost Ark, a nonprofit exotic animal sanctuary in Berlin Center, Ohio. Other states have followed suit and tightened laws after lions and tigers have mauled owners, the grandchildren of owners, or bystanders.

American Pet Tiger Owners

Describing one American tiger owner, Marc Silver wrote in National Geographic, Vernon Yates took one of his 18 tigers to a party — his fee varies by event. “You can’t trust tigers,” a guest said. To prove her wrong, he told her he’d stick his head in the animal’s jaws and tug its tongue for $20. She had to pay up. The money goes to Yates’s Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation shelter, licensed by Florida to take in animals in distress. “I deal with the true dirt of society,” he says, telling of emaciated cats in squalid cages. He makes no apologies for his controversial style. He brings leashed cubs to schools for educational talks and takes his tigers on truck rides.

Josie Glausiusz wrote in Natural History: Matt Joseph keeps ten exotic felines on his thirty-acre ranch in Lisbon, Ohio: four cougars; two male lions; one lioness; two female ligers (a cross between a male lion and a female tiger), and one female Siberian tiger. He bought all of them from breeders, ranging from Georgia to Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and houses the cats in 1,800- to 3,200-square-foot enclosures. “I go into cages with them, I lay with mine, I sleep with mine,” Joseph says. [Source: Josie Glausiusz, Natural History magazine]

“A lot of people who've seen me do what I do say I'm crazy.” He appears to believe that he is immune from serious attack, despite statistics showing that exotic cats do injure owners and bystanders. In 2003 — the same year that a 600-pound white tiger named Montecore dragged Las Vegas showman and tiger trainer Roy Horn across the stage and mauled him in front of a live audience — eighteen people were injured by captive tigers and four were killed. Even Joseph, who says he has seen other collectors confine tigers in cramped quarters, believes that nobody should own the animals, “not even myself, much as I love them and enjoy them.”

So what happens when pet owners find themselves threatened, attacked, or simply bored by their large pets? Many people abandon them. To prevent this, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission created an annual Non-Native Pet Anmesty Day. The free event, which will have its third anniversary on February 23, 2008 at the Miami Metro Zoo, gives remorseful owners the chance to turn over their animals without penalty — thus saving the local ecosystem from more strain. (Other alternatives are scarce. Most zoos require strict pedigrees for their animals, and they likely have an already-filled quota of tigers, lions, and other exotics. The consequences can be seen in the numerous sanctuaries — some for real, some in name only — that have popped up around the country. At the more luxurious end of the spectrum is the Carnivore Preservation Trust (CPT), a spreading expanse of woodland dotted with spacious enclosures, nestled on a remote country road in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Vultures swoop overhead in the humid southern air, searching for scraps of meat, as keepers rove around the site, tossing chunks of goat meat and dead chickens — rejects donated by a local meatpacking plant — over the high fences of the enclosures to the thirteen pacing tigers. Pam Fulk, executive director of the CPT, says the cats were found dumped in parking lots, deserted in trailers, or tethered half-starved at a junkyard where passersby could pose. “When they're cubs, they're cute, they're cuddly,” says Fulk. But at the critical age of six months, many are abandoned or killed.

Private tiger owners often claim that by rescuing these forsaken felines, they are preserving them from extinction. It's an argument that makes little sense to wildlife ecologist Ron Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo and the coordinator of the Tiger Species Survival Plan, a breeding program designed to maintain genetic diversity among zoo tigers in America by mating only the most distantly related individuals with each other. Tilson argues that captive tigers are so inbred that they could not survive if released into their native habitat, as some people advocate. “They've lost a whole lot of genetic tools that may be real important to them and their offspring to survive — for example, resistance to certain kinds of diseases, the ability to tolerate extreme heat or cold, the ability to know how to hunt and kill.”

Escaped Pet Tigers

In June 2004, a declawed tiger owned by an actor who used to play Tarzan in the 1960s and 70s escaped from a compound in Florida. Wildlife officials shot and killed it. In Hampshire, England in 2011, police were called in to capture a white tiger sitting motionless in a field only to find out when they got to the field — heavily armed, with a helicopter hoovering overhead and a team with tranquilizer guns ready — that the tiger was a life-size toy. Before the discovery was made golf courses were cleared and children playing sports were told to seek refuge inside. The true nature of the beast was found out by police in the helicopter. After their infrared sensors picked up no heat from the tiger they went in for a closer look and wind from the helicopter’s rotors caused the “tiger” too topple over.

In July 2004, a tiger escaped from a circus it Queens. Its presence on a highway led to a multi car crash but no injuries. It was lured back into its cage by its handler. AP reported: “After escaping from the circus, a white tiger alarmed picnickers and motorists Saturday on what for him apparently was a calm, half-mile stroll through an unfamiliar urban jungle. The animal, named Apollo, was safely recaptured in the Queens section of the city -- but not before the sight of him on the Jackie Robinson Parkway caused a multi-car accident. Four adults and one child suffered minor injuries. When the tiger lay down on a nearby street, six police officers with guns drawn created a perimeter around it, Capt. John Durkin said. The tiger's trainer arrived and coaxed it back into his cage. "They did some type of signal, and the tiger jumped into the cage," Durkin said. "The tiger was taken into custody without incident." [Source: Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press, August 1, 2004]

“The 7-year-old, 450-pound tiger is part of the Cole Bros. Circus that was performing in Forest Park. The cat was being transferred from a small cage to a larger one when the two enclosures separated, creating an opening big enough for him to get out, police and parks officials said. Apollo calmly prowled through a section of the park, walking past Mary Mason and other people at a church picnic. "We were all in shock," Mason said. "Here we are, out on a quiet Saturday afternoon picnic and all of a sudden, a tiger is walking past like he was on a quiet afternoon stroll."

“Durkin said police followed the animal for about a half-mile from the park to a residential street near the Jackie Robinson Parkway. The tiger had apparently strolled through some streets and stepped on to the parkway before settling in on the street where the police found him, police said. Durkin said authorities were investigating whether the Florida-based circus would be charged with anything. Circus officials declined to comment on the incident. It's not the only time police have had to deal with a tiger in the city.

Lions, a Tiger, Bears and Wolves Freed in Ohio

In October 2011, Greg Bishop and Timothy Williams wrote in the New York Times: “The woman’s voice sounded a little annoyed. “There’s a bear and a lion out,” she told the 911 operator on Tuesday. “Right up behind us.” Come again” the operator said. “Yeah,” the caller replied. “They’re chasing Terry’s horses.” Both the woman and the operator seemed surprisingly calm considering that it was not merely a bear and a lion but 56 exotic creatures — a fierce menagerie that included wolves, monkeys and 18 Bengal tigers, an endangered species whose numbers total less than 3,000 in the wild — that had fled their cages on a 73-acre private reserve. Friends described the couple who ran it as animal lovers, but they also had a history of run-ins with the authorities. [Source: Greg Bishop and Timothy Williams, New York Times, October 19, 2011]

By late Wednesday, a day after the hunt began, the authorities in this central Ohio city of 25,000 said they had killed or captured all but one of the animals, a monkey. It had not been seen all day, and officials believed that it might have been killed by one of the other animals, said Tom Stalf, assistant director of operations at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. The creatures had been freed on the reserve, a few miles west of downtown Zanesville, after one of the owners apparently cut open their wire cages or opened the doors and then fatally shot himself, the authorities said.

The animals’ release set off a day of tense watches, frantic searches and a news media frenzy in the rain-soaked hills along Interstate 70 an hour’s drive east of Columbus. And while there were multiple sightings of wild animals on farmland in and around Zanesville, there were no reports of any people being attacked.

Although many details remained unclear, the authorities described a chaotic, bloody scene on Tuesday after deputies first responded to two 911 calls about Mr. Thompson’s animals running free — not an unusual occurrence. But when deputies arrived about 5:30 p.m. , they were confronted by several of the animals. Sheriff Lutz said that with night falling he had little choice but to give his deputies permission to shoot. They do not normally carry tranquilizer darts, he said.

During the height of the confusion on Tuesday night, Sheriff Lutz said, it was unclear how many animals had been killed. “When they’re shooting animals in all directions, it’s hard to keep track,” he said. He told reporters that his officers were unprepared to deal with large, frightened animals. “I had deputies that had to shoot with sidearms,” Sheriff Lutz said. “These are 300-pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down.” Once the extent of the danger to his deputies became apparent, he said, deputies were given high-powered rifles and stationed in the beds of pickup trucks, where they shot the animals as they cornered them.

Hunting Down the Lions, a Tiger, Bears and Wolves Freed in Ohio

In October 2011, Greg Bishop and Timothy Williams wrote in the New York Times: “The creatures were eventually hunted down and killed by Muskingum County sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officials — at first with handguns, and later with assault rifles — as the animals wandered the property or ventured out of nearby woods. At least 49 had been killed by Wednesday afternoon, most of them within 500 yards of their pens, including 17 lions and at least one animal described as a big cat that was hit by a car as it tried to cross a street. It was later euthanized by the authorities. Six other animals — three leopards, a grizzly bear and two monkeys — were shot with tranquilizer darts and sent to the Columbus Zoo, where they were placed under quarantine. And various species of monkeys, found alive in cages inside the Thompson house, were also spared. [Source: Greg Bishop and Timothy Williams, New York Times, October 19, 2011]

Animal rights advocates criticized the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department for killing so many of the animals, but Sheriff Matt Lutz took pains on Wednesday to illustrate the danger of using nonlethal force in such circumstances. He said that a veterinarian had tried to shoot a fleeing Bengal tiger with a tranquilizer dart, but that it either missed or only enraged the 300-pound animal. “It just went crazy,” Sheriff Lutz said. “We had to put it down.” The sheriff described some of the animals that had been killed as “mature, very big, aggressive” with “high potential” for being dangerous to humans. “We could not have animals running loose in this county,” he said. “We could not have that.”

The Sheriff’s Department shut down all roads leading to Mr. Thompson’s sprawling farm, where most of the animals were kept in pens and cages at the top of a hill, although some were also in the garage and in the house. Neighbors gathered at the blockade, more excited than frightened about the unusual proceedings in their normally quiet town, perhaps best known as the birthplace of the Western writer Zane Grey. Schools were closed for the day out of fear that children might be attacked.

Hanna of the Columbus Zoo defended the sheriff’s actions. “What was he supposed to do?” he asked. To the sheriff, though, the pressure of the previous 24 hours was evident. “It’s just terrible,” he said. “These killings were senseless. It was nonsense. It was crazy.”

Owner of the Farm with the Lions, a Tiger, Bears and Wolves

In October 2011, Greg Bishop and Timothy Williams wrote in the New York Times: “Terry Thompson, 62, who officials said let the animals out, had assembled the exotic collection, creature by creature, with his wife, largely out of their love of wild animals, friends said. But there had been trouble in their lives: Mr. Thompson was released from a federal prison three weeks ago after a serving a year for possessing illegal firearms, and friends said he and his wife were estranged. [Source: Greg Bishop and Timothy Williams, New York Times, October 19, 2011]

Mr. Thompson’s wife, Marian, arrived at the property on Wednesday and pleaded with officials not to kill her animals. Jack Hanna, the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, was helping the authorities at the scene and said that Ms. Thompson had begged them, “Please don’t take my babies,” as they tracked down the wild creatures.

Mr. Thompson, who had run afoul of the law dozens of times over questions of whether his animals were being fed regularly and kept in sanitary conditions, pleaded guilty to federal charges in April 2010 of possessing eight illegal firearms — five automatic weapons and three short-barreled guns whose serial numbers had been filed off, according to court documents.

He spent a year and a day in prison, said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office in Columbus. (It was unclear who took care of the animals while Mr. Thompson was imprisoned.) When he was arrested, federal agents confiscated more than 100 firearms from the property, and they believed he had been illegally selling the weapons, according to documents filed in federal court in Columbus.The Thompsons also had liens of about $56,000 for back taxes and penalties from the Internal Revenue Service, records showed.

Local law enforcement officials said they repeatedly visited the Thompson farm after receiving complaints, but could do little more than make sure that Mr. Thompson had the proper permits for keeping the animals. He did. “We’ve handled numerous complaints, numerous inspections,” Sheriff Lutz said. “This has been a huge problem for us.” Dave Sacks, a spokesman for the United States Department of Agriculture, said that under the federal Animal Welfare Act, the agency monitors exotic animal owners only if they exhibit the animals to the public for compensation.”The rub in Ohio is that U.S.D.A. does not regulate that sanctuary because Mr. Thompson does not exhibit his animals to the public for compensation,” Mr. Sacks said.

Will Travers, the chief executive of Born Free USA, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports wild animals and opposes the exotic pet trade, said that Ohio is one of only eight states that do not regulate exotic animals. It did briefly after a bear mauling, but Gov. John Kasich allowed the ban to expire. “Ohio has a particularly bad record when it comes to exotics,” Mr. Travers said.

During the night, deputies found Mr. Thompson’s body in the driveway of the house with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The authorities and friends of Mr. Thompson said most of the animals had been purchased legally at local auctions. One friend, Quentin Krouskoupf, 38, said that at one point Mr. Thompson had owned two lions that had belonged to the boxer Mike Tyson.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated January 2025