With the release of the series Tiger King on Netflix in March, there is renewed public interest in captive big cat ownership (tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard) in the United States. Currently, there are thousands of captive big cats in private hands across the United States, even more than are in the wild.  On the federal level, there are no laws which outright ban the private ownership of these animals, though federal regulation is placed on animals that are moved or sold interstate and on those used for commercial purposes such as breeding or exhibition (requiring licensure by the United States Department of Agriculture).  Each state and locality may have its own regulation of private owners, and this ranges from no restrictions whatsoever in some states to complete bans.  

The show depicts a myriad of colorful characters battling over the rights to breed, raise, and display these animals. What risks being lost in the media coverage, which focuses on the characters themselves, is the experts’ views on the subject matter.  

 Julie Sheldon, DVM, MS, a veterinarian and expert in zoological medicine, was kind enough to chat over a video call with VPHPM resident Dr. Jim Kincheloe this week about the issue of big cat ownership. Her experiences working with these large cats are wide ranging and occurred at numerous institutions and facilities. She is currently a resident zoological and aquatic animal veterinarian at the University of Illinois. The following is an excerpt from the conversation. 

Jim Kincheloe: Over the course of all those years, have your views on captive big cats changed from where you started out to where you are now?

Dr. Sheldon: I know that there's a lot going on in the media that may change what people think or know about how big cats are cared for in different situations. I've been aware of those situations that have been out there since I was in undergrad. I can't say a lot has changed over the past eight years, because there really hasn't been a lot of change in laws or major changes in the amount of cats that are around. 

It's really just picked up in the general media lately and people didn't realize how many big cats there were. I think in the past month, people are talking about it a lot more because it's being exposed. But I don't think there’s truly been a lot of change in the field in the past eight years because those [locations featured in Tiger King] were all still going on at that point. All these places that that show talks about, a lot of them are still, besides Joe’s place, functioning the same… So to really answer, I guess my view has not changed a lot except for personally gaining knowledge and experience, working with big cats for 8 years and change. 

JK: I’ve known a little about this topic over the years through talking to you and other wildlife-minded folks. But it’s been interesting diving a bit more into the nuances this week with research after watching Tiger King. You're exactly right. I think the public interest has just drastically increased in the past few years, like with what happened in Ohio.

Dr. Sheldon: Yeah. Zanesville, Ohio [In 2011, an exotic animal owner let over 50 animals escape his property before committing suicide, including lions and tigers. Almost all had to be shot by law enforcement.]

JK: And then with Tiger King, there's renewed interest. So underlying all that, there are quite a few arguments that people put out, in favor of private ownership of these animals. Can you give some of your views on the issue?

Dr. Sheldon: My honest opinion is that cats need to be cared for with the highest standards of care across the board. There needs to be regulations on how things go. What is that standard of care and how do you judge that? And that's really hard when you have a lot of variety in how big cats are cared for in this country, where you have one end of the scenario like Joe Exotic, where he has them on leashes and interacting with people that don't work for him and are potentially becoming injured. And then there are other facilities that have completely protected contact where they don't interact with those animals.

I think a lot of those situations, where animals are being used for profit to just interact with them while they're young and small and less harmful, can be harmful for those animals later down the road. So if an animal can't spend its whole life in a high quality-of-care situation, like a lot of those cats that are being separated from their parents and then used until they're too big to interact with people, and end up somewhere else or end up in a bad situation, that is inappropriate and it's not okay. I think being able to privately own big cats allows that to happen, it allows people to do it differently, and however they want. 

JK: So another argument that goes around is that people say there needs to be a large captive population to keep these species from going extinct. What do you think of that argument? 

Dr. Sheldon: Yeah, that's a good question. There are certain subspecies of tiger that exist naturally in the wild. And zoos maintain those subspecies, whether it's a Bengal tiger or a Malayan tiger or Sumatran tiger. They cannot breed a Malayan tiger to a Bengal tiger because their goal is to maintain the natural genetic lineage of those subspecies. But there are not those regulations yet in private ownership. A lot of the tigers that people may see on that TV show may look a lot different.  They may be a light orange, or a white tiger, or mixes of white and orange, etc. And so that is something that occurs due to breeding and selecting for certain genes, despite what subspecies they are. And all of these color variations stem from a white tiger that was captured from the wild a really long time ago. Then that animal was bred to lots of other tigers and there were some inbreeding events that occurred. With inbreeding comes some medical issues as well.

So the idea is that if we can maintain their natural delineated species, we can maintain and conserve tigers for what they are and reduce human-made genetic issues. That’s one goal of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and Tiger Species Survival Program (SSP)— to maintain stud-books with all of the genetics and all of the relatedness between all the tigers in zoos and in order to recommend the best breeding pairs. And that does not always occur in private ownership. 

JK: That makes sense.  

Dr. Sheldon: I know not everyone who owns a big cat is like the people on that show. It depends. What are their intentions? If the intentions are to look cool, and take pictures with them without actually educating people about the plight of tigers in the wild, then that's not doing anyone any good, especially the tigers, and especially if they're not being cared for appropriately. 

JK: So what are some of the current regulations on tiger ownership, in order to own a tiger privately? 

Dr. Sheldon: You have to be licensed by the state government and by the USDA [depending on state and purpose]. That requires a certain amount of hours of experience with big cats so that they know that you know what you're getting into; whether that's volunteering with them at another place for a certain amount of time, or being a zookeeper, all those hours have to be recorded. You have to be documented to prove that you are eligible to get a license. Then you have to be able to follow the regulations of the actual enclosures that the government has lined up and be able to pass inspections—either unscheduled or scheduled and to have a veterinarian on record to prove that you have veterinary care for those animals. 

All those things are required to have private ownership, but there are not currently laws saying you can't interact with your own cats without protective contact. And there are laws that have been discussed about getting passed like the Big Cat Safety Act that are trying to put on limitations on being able to own them at all. Also, if you're going to be exhibiting the animals, like bringing people in to see them and actually charging, bringing them somewhere to teach about them, or to help people take pictures with them, that's when you have to have the USDA license to exhibit and actually do it legally. But even with that license, there are no laws against the cats interacting with people if they are under a certain weight. 

We discussed some of our uncertainties in exact proposed regulations and enforcement.  A resource is provided at the end of the interview which summarizes some of the major existing regulations.

Dr. Sheldon: And it all really comes down to the wildlife trade all over the whole planet. That's a major problem right now. And it even comes down to the coronavirus.  The wildlife trade—moving animals around, being intimate, close with animals, and mixing species that would never come across, whether it's in a wet market or in a zoo. Those are things that zoo veterinarians, keepers and curators have to take into account in building—what species are going to be exposed to each other? Because if they're from Australia, they may have never seen a cat, and Toxoplasma might affect them a lot worse than an animal that might have evolved in the same continent with them.  

So, all this wildlife trade, whether it's in the United States, big cats, between private owners, has consequences.  

If you told all the private owners in the United States that they couldn't have their cats anymore, it could also be a bad situation because there are so many big cats in private ownership. We would need to build a lot more sanctuaries, which would cost a lot of money. We would need to fund those places. And they're not a cheap animal to take care of to live out their entire life. We need to be able to provide that for them.  So I think it's a lot more complicated than just saying, “give me all your cats” because you need to find places and homes for them. Joe Exotic’s place for example, those cats have ended up in different sanctuaries, but they can't all fit in one place. Sanctuaries—if they are true sanctuaries—commit to that cat for the rest of their life. And if it's a one-year-old cat, that's another 15 to 20 years of feeding, veterinary care, and maintenance. So it's no small commitment.

One thing I hope that this show doesn't do is encourage people to think "because it only costs two thousand dollars to buy a cub” based on the show, “I won't buy this breed of dog, I'll buy a tiger instead." That is a bad idea.

I think that the show really didn't talk enough about how we really need to conserve wild tigers. They do touch on it a little bit in the last episode. But I think it's something that should be put across at the beginning, middle, and end of every episode. Because that's the bottom line. It's about actually conserving these amazing animals. 

JK: We touched on this a little bit with the zoos and responsible breeding, but what really are the major differences between zoos and privately owned enterprises? 

Dr. Sheldon: The SSP is a part of the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This organization keeps track of all the animals, who is related to who, and all of the health problems that may occur in those animals. This way all the individuals at all the different zoos are accounted for. There are people that advise what animals should moved where and what animals should be introduced for breeding with the goal to increase the genetic diversity of the species and what's going to be best for that animal and the population. So it definitely takes a lot of work. And I've never been one of those positions myself, but at some point I may serve on a SSP committee to help with the veterinary aspects; or I hope to one day. It takes a lot of coordination throughout the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

In private facilities, they don't have to go by any of that. They can talk to each other as much as they want, but as you can tell in the show, they don't all get along.  So I'm not trying to generalize about all private owners, but I think the show is making people think that they're in it for the money, the cub petting, and pictures. And private owners are not regulated to the extent of zoos as far as trying to maintain genetic diversity of species. 

JK: Any final thoughts on big cat captivity that we haven't covered?

Dr. Sheldon: We want people to love big cats because we want them to conserve them, just like we want to conserve wildlife and the planet. One of the ways we do that is teach people about them. And the ways we do that at zoos is let them see them in real life. If they have a window, they can literally walk up to them, look up close to that animal, and see every part of that amazing creature. In a lot of cases, that really helps someone. You fall in love with that animal and want to do whatever they can to help them. The goal is to educate people about those animals in the wild in order to inspire conservation, and inspire them to be conservation leaders when they get the choice to choose what they want to do when they grow up.

But I don't think you have to play with a tiger cub to have that same experience and same passion. I'm sure it can incite some people more than seeing it in an exhibit. But it needs to be sustainable for those animals—safe and harmless. I think, based on what we're seeing with these TV shows coming out and all of the truth of some of these private owners, is that that's not really what they're doing or what their intentions are. We're not going to be able to save all the tigers in the wild if we don't protect their habitats. We're not going to be able to do that unless we try to reach as many people as possible who end up in leadership positions, who actually want to be in policymaking. We need to be able to see and learn about these animals in order to inspire millions of people to want to help them. But there are a lot of different ways of doing that. And it doesn't have to be wrestling with a cub. 

JK: What other education is needed for the public about these tigers?

Dr. Sheldon: I think we need education about the reasons that these animals are not doing well in the wild. Tigers are poached. They are getting pushed out of their homes because of habitat destruction, because people want to be able to have farms and have homes themselves. But it's also because they're physically being poached for their parts for medicinal purposes. And we have no scientific evidence any of that is helpful. It's actually harmful for the species and the biodiversity in their environments. The more we trudge through their habitats, steal and consume, and make medicine, the more we're going to expose ourselves to things in their environment like viruses.

JK: So this is much larger than just a tiger health issue?

Dr. Sheldon: This is how it all comes back to the same point. It's an interesting time for tigers right now in the media, and I can only make those connections because it is all "One Health." It all is connected, whether we're talking about tigers in sanctuaries or tigers in the wild that are getting poached. And pangolins in the wild that are getting poached. And bats that are getting poached. And now we're all in this standstill, which is probably why we're sitting here talking today.

Animal health, environmental health, and human health are all connected. It couldn't be more clear than at this moment when we have found that a tiger can get this virus from a person; a virus that is killing thousands and thousands of people around the world; all because we are dealing with wildlife in unsafe ways.

Tiger ownership regulations: William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review – Caged Cats: Private Ownership of Lions and Tigers. Note that this review was written in 2014 and though some regulations, including Endangered Species Act exemptions, have been modified since, overall current regulations are as described. 

About Dr. Sheldon: 

Julie Sheldon, DVM, MS, is a veterinarian completing a zoological residency with the Illinois Zoological and Aquatic Animal Residency program. Dr. Sheldon earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida in 2012, doctorate of veterinary medicine at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2016, completed an internship at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 2017, and will be completing her 3 year residency in 2020. She has worked with and treated big cats in zoos, sanctuaries and private facilities. Dr. Sheldon will be qualified to take the certification exam to become a diplomate of the American College of Zoo Veterinarians this year. You can reach her at [email protected].