Jack
Brenton
AshishTigers In America
September 3rd 2010 05:44
As reported on NewsWeek, Americans have an obsession with tigers!
It is estimated estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, significantly more than the world's entire wild population of about 3000. 4,000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone.
Part of the reason for America's enormous tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a license, and sixteen states have no regulations at all.
The success of breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s and 1990s, which drove down prices for the animals.
Below are images of well known celebrities and their tigers.
Michael Jackson visits with illusionists Siegfried (left) & Roy and a white Siberian tiger named Apollo, backstage at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The actress Tippi Hedren (right, with Elllen DeGeneres), who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Marnie," keeps dozens of big cats at her California sanctuary, Shambala. Hedren rescued Michael Jackson's tigers when he closed his zoo.
Michael Jackson is partly responsible for popularizing the notion of tigers as pets, according to those who rescue unwanted and maltreated big cats in America. The late superstar posed with a 6-week-old cub on the cover of his album "Thriller" in the early 1980s, and kept two pet tigers, Thriller and Sabu, at his Neverland ranch until the mid-2000s.
Boxer Mike Tyson kept three tigers at his Texas home in the 1990s. He claimed he sparred with Kenya, pictured here as a cub, another white tiger called Storm, and a golden male, Boris, to stay in shape.
Kenny, a disabled white tiger, was rescued from a breeder by Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in the early 2000s. White tigers are genetic rarities and are often severely inbred as a result. Those who rescue big cats say that for every perfect cub, worth around $20,000 to a breeder, many will be born deformed. Little is known about the fate of these tigers.
It is estimated estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, significantly more than the world's entire wild population of about 3000. 4,000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone.
Part of the reason for America's enormous tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a license, and sixteen states have no regulations at all.
The success of breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s and 1990s, which drove down prices for the animals.
Below are images of well known celebrities and their tigers.
Siegfried & Roy
Tippi Hedren
Michael Jackson
Mike Tyson
Disabled White Tiger
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