Commercial tiger farms in China, Vietnam, and other countries breed tigers for body parts, with welfare conditions causing severe suffering and conservation arguments suggesting the farms undermine wild tiger protection.
Tiger farm welfare conditions are among the most documented examples of systematic large carnivore suffering in captive settings. Animals in overcrowded concrete enclosures cannot perform the territorial, hunting, or social behaviors natural to their species. The breeding model optimizes production of bodies rather than welfare, resulting in conditions that cause chronic severe stress across the animals' entire lives. The welfare case against tiger farms is unambiguous; the conservation case - whether farms reduce or increase poaching pressure - is debated. However, the welfare harm alone is sufficient to oppose tiger farming regardless of conservation outcome, and the precautionary principle argues against maintaining farm systems that may simultaneously harm individual tigers and wild populations.