Big Cat Public Safety Act (2022) — Ending the US Cub-Petting and Private-Tiger Industry

Jurisdiction: US Federal Law or Treaty: Big Cat Public Safety Act (Pub. L. 117-243); amends the Lacey Act (16 U.S.C. § 3371 et seq.) and the Captive Wildlife Safety Act Last verified: 2026-05-24

Summary

On 20 December 2022, the Big Cat Public Safety Act was signed into U.S. federal law [Pub. L. 117-243]. The Act prohibits private individuals from possessing big cats (lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, cougars, and any hybrids) as pets, and — critically — bans public contact with these animals, including the cub-petting and "pay-to-play" photo operations that had driven a cycle of overbreeding and disposal of big cats across the United States.

The law addressed a problem documented for years by conservation organizations and brought to mass public attention by the 2020 documentary Tiger King: the United States held an estimated 5,000–10,000 captive tigers — possibly more tigers than remained in the wild worldwide — most in unregulated private hands, roadside zoos, and cub-petting operations, with no meaningful federal oversight of their breeding, welfare, or disposal [Big Cat Rescue / WWF estimates; USDA APHIS licensing data].

This brief is a case study in a recent, concrete, enforceable US wildlife law and the industry it was designed to end.

What the law does

The Big Cat Public Safety Act [Pub. L. 117-243]:

Prohibits private possession of big cats (Panthera and related species and hybrids) as pets. Existing private owners as of the enactment date were permitted to keep their animals but required to register them with USDA APHIS within 180 days; no new private acquisition is permitted.
Bans public contact with big cats of any age — ending cub-petting, photo ops, and "play sessions." This provision is the heart of the law: cub-petting created the economic incentive for continuous breeding (cubs are only usable for petting for a few weeks before they become dangerous), driving overbreeding and the disposal of animals that aged out of the petting window.
Exempts legitimate facilities — accredited zoos (Association of Zoos and Aquariums members), sanctuaries (Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries-accredited), universities, and wildlife rehabilitation facilities — which may continue to hold big cats under their existing federal frameworks.
Enforcement is via the Lacey Act framework, with civil penalties up to $20,000 and criminal penalties including imprisonment for violations.

The Act passed the House in July 2022 and the Senate in December 2022 with bipartisan support, and was signed into law on 20 December 2022.

The problem it addressed

Before the Act, the United States had a patchwork of state laws governing big cat ownership — some states banned private ownership, others required only a permit, and a few had no restrictions at all. This patchwork, combined with weak federal oversight, produced:

An estimated 5,000–10,000 captive tigers in the US, the large majority in private hands or unaccredited roadside facilities, compared to roughly 3,700–5,500 tigers in the wild globally [WWF; Goodrich et al. 2022 for wild tiger numbers]
A cub-petting economy in which roadside attractions bred tigers continuously to maintain a supply of cubs young enough to handle, then faced the problem of what to do with the animals once they aged out
Welfare and public-safety problems — big cats kept in inadequate private enclosures, escapes, maulings, and the documented difficulty of tracking where animals ended up (including concerns that some entered the illegal trade in big cat parts)
A conservation-laundering risk — a large, poorly-tracked US captive tiger population creates opportunities for tiger parts to enter illegal international trade, undermining wild-tiger conservation and complicating CITES enforcement

The 2020 Netflix documentary Tiger King brought unprecedented public attention to the cub-petting and private-ownership industry, which contributed to the political momentum for the law.

Who is accountable

This brief names no individual defendants. The accountability framework:

USDA APHIS — administers the registration of pre-existing privately-owned big cats and enforces the licensing provisions for exhibitors under the Animal Welfare Act
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — enforces the Lacey Act provisions, including the prohibition on prohibited transactions
U.S. Department of Justice — prosecutes criminal violations

The law was the product of years of advocacy by big cat sanctuaries and conservation organizations (notably Big Cat Rescue, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Humane Society, and World Wildlife Fund) plus bipartisan congressional sponsors.

What worked

Banning public contact (cub-petting) addresses the economic root cause. Rather than only regulating ownership, the law removed the profit incentive (cub-petting revenue) that drove continuous overbreeding. This is a structurally sound design: it targets the economic engine, not just the symptom.
The accredited-facility exemption preserves legitimate conservation breeding (AZA Species Survival Plans) and genuine sanctuaries (GFAS-accredited) while ending the exploitative operations — a clean line between conservation and exploitation.
Federal preemption of the state patchwork — a single national standard closes the "move the animals to a permissive state" loophole that undermined state-level bans.
Registration requirement for pre-existing animals creates, for the first time, a federal census of privately-held big cats — addressing the "we don't know how many there are or where they are" problem that enabled conservation-laundering concerns.

What failed / remains incomplete

Enforcement capacity and the registration census. The law's effectiveness depends on USDA APHIS and USFWS having the resources to verify registrations, inspect grandfathered facilities, and investigate violations. As with the broader APHIS enforcement question, enforcement intensity is the binding constraint.
Grandfathered animals create a long tail. Pre-existing privately-owned big cats may be kept for their lifetimes (big cats live 15–20+ years), so the privately-held population will persist for over a decade even with no new acquisitions. Welfare oversight of these grandfathered animals remains a concern.
Disposition of animals from closed operations. As cub-petting operations close, the animals they held need placement in accredited sanctuaries — and sanctuary capacity is limited and expensive. The law created the prohibition but did not fund a large-scale relocation program; sanctuaries have absorbed the costs.
The wild-tiger conservation benefit is indirect. Reducing the US captive-tiger population reduces one conservation-laundering pathway, but the primary threats to wild tigers (habitat loss, prey depletion, poaching in range states) are unaffected by this US domestic law.

What readers can do

Never visit cub-petting, photo-op, or "play with a tiger cub" attractions — anywhere in the world. These operations are now illegal in the US, but they persist internationally (notably in parts of Southeast Asia). The economic incentive they create is the root driver of big cat overbreeding and exploitation.
Support GFAS-accredited sanctuaries (Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries). True sanctuaries do not breed, do not allow public contact, and do not buy or sell animals. They are absorbing the animals displaced by the law's enforcement. Verify accreditation at sanctuaryfederation.org before donating.
Visit only AZA-accredited zoos. Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation distinguishes genuine conservation institutions (with Species Survival Plans) from roadside menageries. The cub-petting industry operated almost entirely outside AZA accreditation.
Support the organizations that drove the law — Big Cat Rescue, IFAW, the Humane Society, WWF — which continue to monitor enforcement and work on the international cub-petting trade.
Engage on USDA APHIS enforcement funding. The law's real-world effect depends on APHIS and USFWS enforcement capacity. Supporting their wildlife-enforcement appropriations turns the statute into actual practice.
Support wild-tiger range-state conservation (see the NRWL Tiger species brief) — the wild-tiger crisis requires separate action in the range states; US captive-tiger reform is necessary but not sufficient.

References

Big Cat Public Safety Act, Pub. L. 117-243, signed 20 December 2022. Amends 16 U.S.C. § 3371 et seq.
Goodrich, J., Wibisono, H., Miquelle, D., et al. (2022). Panthera tigris. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (for wild tiger population figures). e.T15955A214862019.
U.S. Department of Agriculture APHIS (2023). Big Cat Public Safety Act — implementation and registration guidance. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2023). Big Cat Public Safety Act overview. https://www.fws.gov/
World Wildlife Fund (2022). Captive Tigers in the US — Big Cat Public Safety Act briefing. https://www.worldwildlife.org/