Should There Be a National Tiger Registry?

[Candice Gaukel Andrews]

There are some statistics that you hear that knock your socks off, and you just can’t quite believe them. You think they’re concocted purely to get attention and for shock value. Here’s one I recently came across that fits that category: there are more tigers in American backyards than there are left in the wild throughout the world.

How could that be? I wondered. After all, the tiger isn’t even indigenous to the United States. It turns out that there is very little regulation on keeping wild tigers here. And because their body parts are prized in Asian black markets for traditional medicines and folk remedies — and they are popular subjects for photographers and for college mascots — trafficking in and owning tigers becomes a means for making money.

Read more on the astonishing numbers regarding wild tigers versus captives ones here, and add your thoughts about the need for a national tiger registry.

 

There are more tigers in captivity (such as this one) than there are left in the wild. ©John T. Andrews.