More tigers are held in captivity in the US alone than exist in the wild globally, with significant welfare and conservation concerns about captive tiger facilities.
Tigers in poorly managed captive facilities suffer from inadequate space, improper nutrition, denial of natural hunting behaviour and social isolation. Cub petting operations remove cubs from mothers at days old to maximise their usefulness as photo props. Tiger farms in Vietnam, Laos and China produce tigers for bone products in conditions of extreme confinement. The abundance of captive tigers does not benefit wild tiger conservation.