Fewer ‘Tiger Kings’? Carole Baskin celebrates law requiring big cat pet registry

People who keep tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs or cougars have until June 18 to tell the government about their oversized pets or face potential criminal charges and fines under a new federal law.

The Big Cat Public Safety Act outlaws the private ownership, breeding and selling of big cats in the U.S. The bill was championed by Hillsborough County residents and animal welfare activists Carole and Howard Baskin, who were featured in Netflix’s hit 2020 documentary series “Tiger King.”

The Baskins on Friday gave the bill’s sponsors, U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat, and Mike Quigley of Illinois, a tour of their Big Cat Rescue sanctuary to celebrate the enforcement of the new law.

Zoos, universities and sanctuaries can still keep big cats under the law, but they’re no longer allowed to let the public interact with the animals. That includes the practice of cub petting, which has led to overbreeding and overpopulation of big cats in captivity.

Private owners who had big cats before Dec. 20, when the law went into effect, can keep them as long as they register them with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that there are 20,000 big cats kept as pets in the U.S. But several states have no way of keeping track of private big cat ownership, making accurate estimates — and enforcement of the new law — difficult.

So far, the agency has received registration forms for a small fraction of the estimated 20,000 big cats kept in private ownership, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson said.

“The problem is that people who own these cats are kind of off the grid,” said Jessica Merritt, a staffer in Quigley’s office, who helped write the bill.

Carole Baskin said private owners typically buy big cats as cubs and often relinquish them after they reach 3 years old, when they become far more deadly.

The Baskins and other activists spent about a decade working to get the bill passed. Quigley said some in Congress hesitated to trample state’s rights or to force cub-petting businesses to shut down. But “not every business is a good one,” Quigley said.

Dade City’s Wild Things, which had a history of federal animal welfare violations, shut down in 2020 amid a lawsuit over its cub-petting business.

Quigley added that many in law enforcement backed the bill because first responders were at times having dangerous encounters with big cats being kept as pets.

The Baskins plan to sell Big Cat Rescue in the next couple of years and are sending many of their animals to a sanctuary in Arkansas. They said the move comes as they expect fewer big cats will need to be rescued, thanks to the new law.

“It enables us to be able to do the work that’s really near and dear to my heart, which is saving these cats in the wild,” Carole Baskin said.