End Tiger Farming in the U.S.
If you could do just one thing to save the most tigers, this is it.
Tigers are being farmed openly in China for their bones, fur and meat but when CITES tries to pressure them to stop, they point to the U.S. and say, “but you do it too!” It isn’t as openly done in the U.S., but it has been proven to happen in the US Fish Wildlife Service sting called Operation Snow Plow.
It starts with breeders who breed “generic” tigers (that are inbred, crossbred or otherwise not considered purebred) that are used for pay to play sessions where the public pays to pet or pose with a baby tiger or lion cub. They are only cute and cuddly for about a month of “service” and then they are discarded into the pet trade, warehoused in tiny, barren cells or worse; ending up on dinner menus, skinned, stuffed or disappearing into the black market trade.
Back in the 1980s the US Fish Wildlife Service decided it was too much bother to deal with every back yard breeder who wanted a permit to breed tigers, so they created a “generic” tiger loophole. It essentially states that if you are not a legitimate AZA accredited zoo, which must conform to permitting requirements to breed purebred tigers, then you can breed, exploit and discard tigers at will and with virtually no oversight. It was the worst move the U.S. has ever made for tigers.
Now the problem is of epidemic proportions with thousands of tigers languishing in tiny, filthy cages and daily dropping off the radar as there is no one monitoring what happens to them next. The problem in China is largely the fault of the U.S. having taken such a lax stance on the issue and setting such a poor example to the rest of the world.
YOU can change that now! Send this quick and easy letter to the US Fish Wildlife Service, USDA / APHIS, and the Secretary of State asking that they rescind the “generic” tiger loophole.