What is the experience of keeping a tiger as a pet?

Seal source: Karl smallwood | Leviathan (ID: liweitan20 14)

? Wikisharing

Maybe you don't know, the number of tigers in the United States is between 5000 and 10000, which is twice the total number of tigers in other parts of the world. Moreover, most of these tigers are not ornamental animals in zoos, but live secretly in the United States as pets of anonymous owners. Then the question is, how did these people get these exotic species through legal means?

First of all, in federal law, there is no clear regulation on the sale of some non-native animals. The purchase and captivity of these animals did not appear in the Law on the Safety of Captured Wild Animals promulgated in 2003. It is worth noting that the reason why the authorities promulgated this law is precisely to curb the situation that the private captive cats in the United States were out of control at that time.

From 2065438 to 2007, Nicholas Perkins, a 32-year-old from California, USA, was accused of abusing tiger cubs. ? Abc news

However, the scope of application of this law is extremely limited, and with some exceptions, it is only forbidden to transport these animals across the state. In fact, most of these big cats breed in the United States, and they can usually breed their own cubs. Besides, it is not difficult to secretly transport these animals across the state. So it turns out that getting this alien species from America is the easiest way. More importantly, because the federal government does not have any registry or similar institutions to record who owns these big cats, this has aggravated violations everywhere.

Having said that, it should also be mentioned that federal legislation has formulated various laws and regulations on captive tigers and other exotic species, but these laws and regulations are often not strictly enforced. In some cases, you may even find that there are no applicable laws and regulations at all. For example, if you happen to live in Nevada, Alabama, North Carolina, Wisconsin and South Carolina, you will find that you can easily go out and buy a tiger to take home, and you don't need to report to anyone or apply for any license-except that North Carolina allows counties to make their own laws and regulations on this issue. In addition, if you want to bring exotic pets from other States into Wisconsin, you must provide a permit, but now.

What's more, at least a dozen States are also lax in control. In these places, if someone wants to buy lions or baboons as pets from abroad, they just need to fill in some files and pay a small license fee.

Worst of all, even in those States where the law does not allow individuals to own tigers, there is still a legal loophole, that is, the exhibition license granted by the US Department of Agriculture to specific animals. Specifically, this loophole is that most people can classify themselves as "exhibitors", and the US Department of Agriculture even has detailed guidelines. Here's a quote from the original guide: "The institutions that can get permission to participate in the exhibition include circuses, zoos, educational exhibition institutions, children's experience zoos, animal performance institutions, wildlife parks, marine mammal zoos, and some protected areas. "

Tiger cubs that sell for $2,000 to $3,500 online. ? Xing Qiu Zhen qi pet

As for the specific definitions of these institutions, USDA did not further explain or limit them, but left a blank to be explained, such as what is an "educational exhibition institution"?

The consequences of this escape are quite terrible. In theory, anyone can get a tiger purchase license from an "educational exhibition organization", as long as the tiger is locked in a cage, and then the scientific name of the tiger on Wikipedia is printed and posted on the cage, and then friends or family members can see the tiger from time to time, which is considered to meet the requirements of educational exhibitions. This practice is not only completely legal, but also allows the owner to avoid paying taxes when buying tigers in some cases, as long as the owner is good at taking advantage of loopholes in the law.

The process of obtaining USDA license is very simple. The application fee is only $65,438+00, and then you need to pay $ 30~300 every year. The specific cost depends on what kind of animals you want to own and how many you want to keep. In addition to paying the fee, you also need to prove that you have the minimum feeding facilities required by the US Department of Agriculture to qualify for feeding. However, this is not good news for tigers, because the minimum standards of feeding facilities proposed by the US Department of Agriculture are very bad, far below the minimum standards of feeding facilities proposed by the Global Federation of Protected Areas or the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

There is another thing that annoys animal rights activists in the United States. Once the owner gets the license, the supervision of the relevant departments on the owner can be described as ineffective. It is reported that it is usually only checked once a year or not at all. This has brought very terrible consequences. If the owner judges that he can't even reach the minimum feeding standard proposed by USDA, it is not difficult to hide the number of animals he holds. After all, the number of animals owned by the owner depends on his own conscious declaration, and USDA only goes through the formalities according to the documents when conducting the inspection.

To make matters worse, even if the owner's breeding facilities are found to be substandard during the inspection, the authorities rarely confiscate those pets. The reason is not hard to imagine. Simply put, there is no place to take these animals. The zoos with better conditions and more complete facilities have long been crowded with adult tigers. The reason is that most private owners are more willing to buy small and lovely cubs. But these private owners will soon find that tiger cubs eat an amazing amount of food, and they will grow from kittens to giants weighing 500-800 pounds and 12 feet long. (Translator's Note: It weighs about 226.80~362.87 kilograms and is 3.66 meters long. )

? the japan times

So it is easy to lead to a natural result. Once the practical difficulties of raising adult tigers awaken those private owners, they will call the zoo or wildlife sanctuary in despair, hoping that someone will take away the large animals at home. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for them to kill their pets directly if they can't find an institution to accept them.

Compared with the amount of buying a tiger, the fine for violating USDA regulations is much smaller, so private buyers usually don't consider the consequences if they break the law, even if it is federal law.

If we look away from the United States for a while, we will find that other countries in the world generally strictly control the ownership and sales rights of exotic species. In the most tightly controlled countries, such as Austria, except zoos and wildlife reserves, any private person or organization is prohibited by law from keeping tigers. But most countries still allow tigers to be kept, as long as they can obtain licenses or related qualifications. Of course, there are also many laws and regulations that restrict private individuals from obtaining such permits.

For example, in Britain, it is completely legal to buy tigers privately, but the laws and regulations on raising exotic species in Britain are more complete than those in the United States, and the law enforcement is absolutely stricter, thanks to the Dangerous Wild Animals Act promulgated by 1976. It stipulates that individuals must apply for and buy breeding licenses every year, must obey the breeding guidance and regular inspection of relevant departments, and must buy insurance to prevent these animals from being released and hurting people.

Incidentally, if readers are interested in raising wild animals, they may wish to take a look at the Dangerous Wild Animals Act promulgated by 1976. The law also clearly stipulates that anyone in Britain can keep otters, seals and hyenas freely without any approval. Hyenas are animals that look like hyenas, but they mainly live on insects, which is very interesting. )

? Lee Strauss

Although the laws on wildlife breeding in Britain are stricter and the enforcement is stronger, this does not prevent private people from legally raising wild animals. These registered animals include about 150 big cats (mainly leopard cats), more than 500 monkeys, 250 poisonous snakes, 50 crocodiles, 2,000 ostriches and 300 American bison. According to statistics, bison is one of the most dangerous animals to human beings in the world, which is also the reason why it has never been successfully domesticated and used for agricultural cultivation in history. As for why wild leopard cats are so popular, the reason is that they are often used to cross with domestic cats, artificially cultivate new varieties that are smaller and more docile than wild leopard cats, and put them on the pet market.

As for how to buy these wild animals, we have to mention the famous Harras pets in London, which are still in business until 20 14. Before the promulgation of the Endangered Species Act (1976), this pet shop sold almost any animal required by customers, and even after the promulgation of the law, it still maintained an extremely rich variety of sales. In its heyday, the inventory of pet shops alone was comparable to that of London Zoo.

A famous grand occasion in that year was that rich British people could go shopping in Harrods Department Store and come out with three scarves, 1 crocodile. This pet shop is also famous for its excellent service. At that time, there was a story that was hard to distinguish between true and false: one day, the pet shop received a phone call from Albanian Kanda Berg III Zog I, claiming to buy an elephant from a store in London. It is said that the clerk who answered the phone didn't think about whether someone was playing a prank at all, but immediately asked the other party gently, "Sir, do you want an African elephant or an Indian elephant?"

? Flashing (light)

In today's era, it has proved easier to buy and sell animals. Just by using such quick and basic operations as Google search, you can find a large number of animal shops to provide sales services for tigers or other exotic species. Even in some states of the United States, you will find these shops not far from your home.

This involves the price of a tiger. In fact, you don't need to be worth millions or millions to buy a tiger. If you can accept buying an adult tiger, sometimes you can get it for free from the owner who wants to throw it away. As for tiger cubs, the price also varies from breed to breed. In most cases, the transaction price of a tiger cub is about 1000~3000 dollars. Of course, the more precious the species, the more expensive it is. For example, the price of albino tiger cubs is as high as tens of thousands of dollars. However, you must also consider another expense. Because the inbreeding of albino tigers is very serious at present, you will definitely have to pay high medical expenses in the future.

Yes, medical expenses are the biggest expense for buying a tiger. It is conceivable that only a few veterinarians have excellent medical skills and are willing to treat tigers. Even if there are such doctors, they are absolutely unwilling to provide cheap services. There is another situation that must be considered. Finding such a veterinarian may mean that you have to transport tigers long distances. This is definitely not an easy thing. Don't think you can start by stuffing it into the back seat.

In fact, even if you can train the tiger to endure long-distance riding and find a way to put it into the car successfully, and it will not threaten your driving safety (even if you are emotional, it will also threaten yourself)-even if you do all this, most veterinarians will still refuse to see a tiger that is not in the cage. In other words, if you want to take the tiger to a distant place for medical treatment, we can only suggest that you buy or make a strong large animal cage yourself and put it behind a truck or a large trailer.

After talking about medical expenses, let's talk about food expenses. An adult tiger needs to eat 15 pounds (about 7 kilograms) of meat every day, and must also include a variety of nutrients. Usually private owners can only provide beef, horse meat and other livestock meat, which can't satisfy the tiger's diet balance.

However, some extremely powerful and imaginative owners have found new ways to avoid huge meat expenses. The co-author of this article grew up in Washington State, and there lived a lady not far from home. She keeps 1 panther, 1 lion, 1 tiger, 1 puma and 1 giant wolf-and this wolf is the only one among all her pets that guests are not allowed to approach and touch. Anyone who enters the wolf's sight will consciously abide by the mistress's ban as long as he looks at you. It's not hard to guess what she's thinking ... In short, the hostess can easily solve the meat source of all her pets by relying on the wild animals killed by cars on the expressway. The animals killed were mainly deer, so she either collected and carried the bodies herself or bribed the road maintenance personnel to deliver the dead deer to the door. Usually she puts one or two deer in the cage every week for her pets to eat. If this frequency cannot be reached, she must make sure that no one is near the cage.

This brings us another expense. It is one thing to provide enough food for tigers, and it is another to provide enough space for tigers. You can refer to a set of numbers. Usually, the living space of male wild tigers is about 40 square miles (about 100 square kilometers), and that of females is about 7 square miles (about 18 square kilometers). Few people own such a large area of land, and it is difficult to trap tigers on a large scale. On the other hand, even if the area is small, it is not easy to trap them. Because tigers are very good at escaping from fences, even high fences. This allows most owners to simply put the tiger in a cage to ensure that the tiger cannot escape, thus ensuring the safety of all people and animals around.

At this point, we must point out that the tiger will always regard human beings as prey, even if it is the owner who has been with it since childhood. For example, Cindy gamble of Minnesota kept dangerous animals such as tigers for more than ten years, but she died in the tiger's jaws overnight. In 2006, her 500-pound Bengal tiger suddenly killed its owner for unknown reasons.

Cindy gamble (1953-2006). ? Flashing (light)

In another case in 2003, Clayton James Eller, a boy aged 10, was helping his uncle and aunt sweep the snow when he accidentally approached the cage where the tiger was kept, and happened to be near a small movable door under the cage. This small door is specially used for the dog at home, so that it can go in and out of the cage and play with the tiger. In other words, until the day of the accident, the tiger involved was extremely friendly to everyone including Clayton, even their dog.

However, disaster still befalls the boy and every family member. The 400-pound (about 18 1 kg) monster suddenly reached out from the movable door, grabbed Clayton, dragged him into the cage and killed him. The same reason is unknown. The boy's uncle is called James. He responded almost immediately and rushed forward to try his best to drive the tiger away from the boy's body, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Then he rushed into the house, took out his gun and shot the tiger, killing it on the spot. Sadly, the boy didn't survive.

Perhaps the most famous wounding incident of private captive animals can be traced back to Ohio in 20 1 1 year, which was called the Zanesville Zoo tragedy at that time. Terry Thompson, the main person responsible for this tragedy, suddenly decided to release most of the animals in his private zoo, including 2 wolves, 1 macaque, 1 baboon, 6 black bears, 3 mountain lions, 2 grizzly bears, 3 leopards and a large group of lions (9 males and 8 females).

? nbc news

At first, the police received an anonymous phone call to report that Thompson's zoo had a group of escaped animals, but there was no sign of Thompson himself. At this time, the local police naively thought that Thompson was finally eaten by his wild animals. In the years before the tragedy, the police have been trying to confiscate Thompson's animals, especially after Thompson was briefly imprisoned for breaking the law. The police once thought that this person was mentally unstable and even suspected that he had schizophrenia. Later, Thompson was heavily in debt and abandoned by his wife, and the situation began to turn sharply. However, for the police, since he has not violated any laws, there is no legal means to confiscate those endangered animals.

On the day of the incident, when the police arrived at the scene, they found that Thompson had committed suicide after releasing the animals. However, for such a critical state, the police did not prepare in advance, so they immediately fell into a dangerous situation.

? National Geographic

In order to get first-hand information, we found one of Thompson's neighbors, another farmer, Sam Kopchak. He was the first person to realize the crisis, when he noticed that his horse suddenly showed fear. He looked around and found many carnivores staring at their horses. His original words were: "Let me tell you this, it's bad enough to have lions wandering around, as well as lionesses, wolves and bears … but the worst carnivore is tigers, so don't go near them. Because adult tigers are actually bigger than lions. Moreover, the tiger began to roar first and began to chase the horse. "

Because it is impossible to drive these dangerous animals safely into the fence, and it is too late to contact before dark, when professionals arrive at the scene with anesthesia equipment, the police have to choose to kill the animals that escaped from the cage. Animals that escaped from cages before have started to attack each other, and a few have died. This massacre is not only the tragedy of these poor animals, but also the devastating disaster of some species, such as 18 Bengal tiger, because there may be only one or two thousand individuals in the wild at present, and the number in breeding or captivity is unpredictable. ...

? Wikisharing

As you may have guessed, this incident directly promoted many states, including Ohio, to strengthen legislation and impose stricter control on private ownership and raising of dangerous animals. However, it seems that the situation has not really improved, as animal rights protectors often lament: obeying the law is one thing, but strictly enforcing the law is another, and really worrying about it is another ... Needless to say, there are still many loopholes in these laws and regulations.

Text/Carl Smallwood

Translator/Tyrande Whisperwind

Proofreading/river carp work

original/www . today found . com/index . PHP/20 19/ 10/how-are-rich-people-have-buy-exotic-pets-like-tigers。

This paper is based on the Creative Agreement (BY-NC) published by Tyrande Whisperwind in Leviathan.

The article only represents the author's point of view and does not necessarily represent Leviathan's position.

In the new media editorial department where this topic is ubiquitous and loves reading, we often encounter interesting novelty in various official WeChat accounts.

Now, they will appear in this column one by one.

You are also welcome to participate at any time, and leave a message to recommend the low-key articles you read.