Tigers in captive facilities across Asia and beyond face severe welfare problems including abuse for tourist entertainment, cramped conditions and use in traditional medicine trade.
Captive tigers face some of the most severe welfare conditions of any large felid in human hands. In tourist attraction settings across Asia, tigers are chained, drugged or physically controlled to prevent harm to paying visitors, living in conditions of profound deprivation. In private facilities in the US and elsewhere, inadequate space, improper nutrition and social isolation are common. The global tiger captive population outnumbers wild tigers, yet contributes nothing meaningful to conservation and causes immense individual animal suffering. The Big Cat Public Safety Act represents an important step in addressing private tiger keeping in the US, but global action is needed.