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A $40 loophole allows almost anyone to own a lion, tiger, or bear

JNK Call of the Wild
Tigers and bears check each other out while <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/armed-police-freed-tigers-lions-and-bears-from-captivity-2016-3">they're being confiscated</a> from the defunct JNK's Call of the Wild Sanctuary. IFAW - International Fund For Animal Welfare/YouTube

You might think that it's really difficult — if not impossible — to get a permit that would allow you to own an animal like a tiger, lion, or bear.

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After all, these are exceptionally dangerous wild animals that weigh hundreds of pounds, consume large amounts of food, and require a lot of space.

But in fact, it's so easy to get exotic animals in the US that there are more tigers in captivity here than there are in the wild throughout the world, according to Carson Barylak, who works on legislative issues for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and heads their "Big Cats in Captivity" campaign.

There's no federal law that regulates the ownership of exotic animals, so states and local legislatures decide whether or not you or your neighbor can own exotic animals.

The resulting patchwork of laws means there are a handful of states with no restrictions whatsoever on exotic animal ownership and many others that allow it as long as people get a permit.

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Many states tightened up their laws after a 2011 incident when an exotic animal owner killed himself after setting loose his 18 tigers, 17 lions, 8 bears, three cougars, two wolves, one baboon, and one macaque — all of which were killed during the incident.

But there's a loophole: Even in states where you can't just go out and buy a tiger at an auction or get a permit that lets you privately keep a lion, people can still get a license from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) if they are going to display the animals.

Barylak says getting that license is an "extraordinarily easy" process that costs approximately $40.

Again, it costs less to get permission to set up a little roadside menagerie — many of which are responsible for some pretty horrific animal welfare violations — than it does to buy a purebred dog.

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As the USDA website explains it, that Class C license for someone who exhibits their animals comes with a yearly $10 application fee and an annual license fee that ranges from $30 to $300, depending on the number of animals being registered.

In order to obtain that permit, licensees must show that they have a facility that meets a bare minimum of standards for containing the animals.

After that, the USDA does evaluate facilities, but their visits are sometimes only once a year. Even then, serious violations to the Animal Welfare Act may not result in any action.

tiger JNK
A tiger being removed from JNK. IFAW - International Fund For Animal Welfare/YouTube

"They can identify violations and still keep [facilities] going for years," says Lisa Wathne, a captive-wildlife expert at the Humane Society.

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Enforcement is a complicated problem that takes time. Some USDA inspectors are excellent, according to Cathy Liss, the president of the Animal Welfare Institute. But she says that "enforcement typically takes too long, and the fines aren't enough" to deter irresponsible ownership of exotic animals.

In most cases, there's not even a government record of which exotic animals are being kept by exhibitors or private owners in any location. As Wathne explains, facilities are supposed to keep records of animals that come into and out of their possession, but the USDA doesn't make copies or keep those records themselves.

And even if a place does have cages that are big and strong enough to contain the animals, those facilities don't have to come anywhere near the space and quality of care that would allow them to get certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums or the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries — two respected groups that certify legitimate zoos and sanctuaries, according to animal welfare experts.

Because of that loophole and a lack of other regulations, especially in certain states, experts say that a conservative estimate is that there are now more than 10,000 big cats (mostly tigers, with a good number of lions and some other cats) in captivity in the US, and those numbers continue to grow.

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The question is, why is it so easy for people to own dangerous animals? For the sake of those people's neighbors (and for the sake of humane animal treatment), why don't we have stricter policies regarding who can keep animals and how they can be treated?

Animal-rights groups want legislative changes that essentially prohibit private buying, selling, and breeding of these animals. Especially important, they say, is making it illegal to handle tiger cubs, something the USDA now allows while the cubs are approximately between eight and 12 weeks old. To work within that short time window, facilities that regularly offer cub-handling to visitors continually breed animals.

Without legal changes, the number of big cats in captivity will continue to rise. And most of the time, we're not even aware of it when there might be a problematic situation with dangerous animals in our own backyard.

Animals
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