Tiger farms in Asia hold thousands of captive tigers primarily for traditional medicine markets, creating severe welfare problems and undermining wild tiger conservation.
Captive tigers on commercial farms live in conditions that deny their complex behavioral and spatial needs. Tigers are solitary, territorial animals that require large home ranges. Farm enclosures that prevent most natural behavior cause chronic stress, stereotypic pacing, and behavioral pathology. Beyond individual welfare, the farming model threatens wild tigers by maintaining consumer demand for tiger products and providing legal cover for laundering wild-sourced materials.