Helping Tigers in Jeopardy
In the summer of 2011, we received a call saying there were tigers in jeopardy at a bankrupt Texas sanctuary that would be euthanized by the end of the year. The bankruptcy proceeding had been going on since 2010, and while other animals had found homes, no one would accept the tigers. TIA traveled to San Antonio, and conversations with authorities led to the release of seven tigers that we had transported to sanctuaries in Florida and North Carolina.
Convinced that this had been an isolated incident, we returned to New York City and our day jobs. The phone soon rang again. "Are you the people that got the tigers out of Texas? We have a problem here in Ohio, the owner can't feed her tigers, and she is suicidal, can you help?"
Off to Ohio we went, but calls from Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, told us that the Texas tiger situation was not unique. It is legal in this country to commercially breed tigers for roadside zoos that buy them for exhibition or to sell them to private owners who buy them for amusement. There are thousands of tigers out there, and we thought there must be some organizations that already deal with this problem.
Our search led us to animal rescue places who could not take them because they were too dangerous, and to zoos who would not take them because they were not purebred. Tiger breeding had spilled out of the zoo system in the 1980s when zoos dumped their surplus tigers to animal dealers who cross-bred them (Bengal to Amur or Sumatran or Malaysian) and began selling them. Any tiger you see in this country outside the zoo system is considered "generic" and therefore has no conservation value, which is why the zoos won't take them. We spoke to wildlife charities who raise millions of dollars a year for wildlife preservation but don't help tigers in this country.
We tend to be optimistic and found two sanctuaries to take the Texas tigers. Our search for other places led to a report that identified 130 facilities in the United States listed as sanctuaries with tigers. However, there is no restriction on the use of the word sanctuary in a corporate name, so any breeder, exhibitor, dealer, or roadside zoo can set up a company, acquire tax-exempt status, advertise, and solicit donations as a tiger sanctuary.
We formed Tigers in America and spent the next two years visiting sanctuaries on the list. We have since identified what we consider to be the best tiger sanctuaries in the country and created the TIA Rescue Network. Since our founding, we have relocated 250 tigers and other big cats to 17 TIA sanctuaries that provide lifetime care for 500 tigers.