President Biden Signs Bill Outlawing Private Ownership of Big Cats - The New York Times

The days of paying to favored lion and tiger cubs, arsenic portrayed successful the deed Netflix documentary tv bid “Tiger King,” are officially implicit successful the United States.

On Tuesday, President Biden signed a measure into law that seeks to halt the exploitation of large cats by preventing unlicensed radical from owning, breeding and transporting these animals. The instrumentality besides bans licensed exhibitors — chiefly zoos and sanctuaries — from allowing the nationalist to interaction the animals oregon clasp cubs.

“Tiger King,” which captivated viewers stuck astatine location successful 2020, shone a airy connected the fraught satellite of backstage large feline ownership and highlighted the “miserable conditions thousands of tigers, lions, leopards, and pumas are kept successful by irresponsible owners,” Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, said in a statement.

The seven-part bid depicted a turbulent manufacture of roadside zoo attractions successful the U.S. and zoomed successful connected a now-shuttered installation successful Oklahoma erstwhile operated by Joseph Maldonado-Passage, a colorful quality who besides goes by the sanction Joe Exotic.

The amusement besides focused connected simmering discord betwixt Mr. Maldonado-Passage and Carole Baskin, a self-described carnal rights activistic often clad successful animal-print apparel who denounced Mr. Maldonado-Passage’s zoo.

At that zoo, G.W. Exotic Animal Park, which erstwhile promoted Groupon admittance deals, customers could wage to cuddle with babe cubs and instrumentality photos with them. The “Tiger King” footage included a country of a cub being separated from its parent soon aft birth.

In January 2021, respective months aft the show’s release, Mr. Quigley introduced the “Big Cat Public Safety Act,” which successful July of this twelvemonth passed successful the House of Representatives with a 278-134 ballot and past successful the Senate unanimously earlier this month. The animals covered nether the measure are taxon of lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, cougar and hybrids of these cats.

The caller instrumentality volition “not lone assistance extremity the cruel and inhumane cub petting industry,” Mr. Quigley said in a statement, but besides support communities safer.

Animal rights advocates celebrated the legislation, which they described arsenic agelong overdue. Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, said that the instrumentality ended “a warped manufacture with nary socially redeeming purpose, perpetrating large harm to animals portion putting Americans astatine hazard each time of the year.”

Ms. Amundson added that the measure would enactment a halt to what she called “an endless rhythm of exploiting and mistreating large feline cubs, who were dumped aft they grew excessively ample for photograph ops.” In the past 2 decades, much than 400 “dangerous incidents” involving large cats occurred successful 46 states and the District of Columbia, including astatine slightest 24 deaths, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Under the caller law, owners of large cats person 180 days to registry their animals with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. People who neglect to bash truthful look a good of up to $20,000 oregon 5 years successful prison.

In 2018, Mr. Maldonado-Passage was arrested aft helium tried doubly the anterior year, unsuccessfully, to prosecute people to termination Ms. Baskin. Mr. Maldonado-Passage paid an worker $3,000 to chopped disconnected Ms. Baskin’s head, according to tribunal records. In a 2nd attempt, helium made the sedate blunder of hiring an undercover F.B.I. agent.

He was besides found blameworthy of falsifying wildlife records and violating the Endangered Species Act for his relation successful trafficking and sidesplitting tigers.

Mr. Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, is present serving 21 years successful prison.

Ms. Baskin, who is the main enforcement and laminitis of a Tampa, Fla.-based enactment called Big Cat Rescue, told The New York Times that she viewed the bill’s transition arsenic “the top accomplishment successful my 30 years of moving to halt mistreatment of large cats.”

She besides said successful a statement that the measure came aft “many years of battling against narcissistic, abusive, unsafe men who dominated this cruel commercialized and did everything they could to halt its passage, including wanting to intimidate, discredit, and adjacent termination me.”

She expressed gratitude for being “harder to intimidate oregon termination than immoderate thought.”