By
James JeffreyAustin, Texas
11
June 2018
There
may be more captive tigers in the US than wild ones in the rest of the world.
But in states like Texas that bristle at government interference, no-one really
knows how many are being kept as pets.
Taj
was a four-month-old tiger cub when purchased at a Texas truck stop by the
driver of an 18-wheeler lorry. But after Taj began tearing up the truck's cab,
the driver contacted Austin Zoo to get the animal off his hands. The zoo now
looks after the fully grown 17-year-old Bengal tiger male.
Taj
is one of as many as 7,000 tigers living in the US either in zoos or privately
owned, according to some estimates. That's nearly double the estimated 3,890
tigers still prowling in the wild around the world.
Many
of America's tigers could be in people's backyards as pets, and often aren't
registered, especially in states like Texas. No-one really knows just how many
tigers there are out there.
At
the heart of this surprising tiger turnout is the very American notion of a
God-given right to do one's own thing, including owning a pet - no matter how
exotic - being an individual liberty that the state should not mess with.
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