Tigers in captivity range from wild tiger conservation breeding to appalling tourist attractions with profoundly different welfare implications.
Tiger captivity exists on a vast welfare spectrum. At the worst extreme, roadside zoos and tourist attraction tigers live in barren cages, are handled constantly as cubs, and may be killed when no longer useful. At the best extreme, accredited zoo tigers with large naturalistic enclosures and minimal public contact live reasonably good lives while potentially contributing to conservation genetics. The difference is accreditation, space, and the fundamental question of whether the tiger is there for conservation or commerce.