Tigers! New Rules! You Can Help!

Camouflaged among the pages of the Federal Register/Vol. 76, No. 162/ Monday, August 22, 2011/ Proposed Rules, pages 52297-52301, hidden between pages and pages of proposed rules,  the most important action to SAVE TIGERS in over 10 years is waiting for your support by just leaving a comment before September 21, 2011.

Siberian Tiger Photo credit: Joanne McGonagle

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service propose to amend the regulations that implement the Endangered Species Act by removing inter-subspecific crossed or generic tiger (Panthera tigris)(i.e.,specimens not identified or identifiable as members of Bengal, Sumatran, Siberian or Indochinese subspecies from the list of species that are exempt from registration under the Captive-bred Wildlife (CBW) regulations.” To read the entire proposal, click here.

Don’t be overwhelmed when you see the words crammed on the pages. All you need to do is leave a comment in your own words. Simply say you are FOR the new rule rescinding the generic tiger exemption.  That is all you have to say and you will have done an amazing thing towards saving our big cat cousins.  It will only take about 30 seconds and it doesn’t cost a penny.  Won’t you please help? Click Here for the Comment form.

You might be wondering why this is so super important.  There is an estimated over 5,000 tigers in captivity in the United States and the reason we don’t know how many tigers are in captivity is because in 1998  the US Fish and Wildlife Service created a rule that exempted “generic” tigers from the permit and reporting requirements that apply to endangered species.  ALL tigers bred outside of Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited facilities are generic.

A generic tiger is a tiger that is not identifiable as  a  Bengal, Siberian, Sumatran or Indochinese subspecies. No matter what the facility may tell you, this type of breeding of tigers does not help the conservation of tigers in the wild or  the survival of the species in captivity. These are the tigers bred for photo opportunities with cubs. When the cubs have outgrown their “usefulness” in a few short months, they are often kept in crowded cages, sold into the canned hunting industry or to taxidermists as “trophies”.  These are the tigers that need rescued by reputable cat sanctuaries and why they are in constant need of our support both as volunteers and financially.

Increasing the supply of generic tigers supports the market for them and creates a greater opportunity for poachers to kill a wild tiger to sell its parts into the black market.  We have less than 3000 surviving wild tigers today.  There is no time to wait.  We must step up our protection of our big cat cousins.

Big Cat Rescue has a short video showing us what happens to  generic tiger cubs when they are born into these captive breeding facilities. Won’t you please leave a comment to help stop the captive breeding of generic tigers?

When you leave a comment on the  regulations.gov, Your voice in Federal Decision-Making, please come back and tell me what you said to help others that might be struggling to come up with their own words.  This is super important to me and all cats everywhere.  Thank you for helping!!!

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