Biden Signs Tiger King Bill Into Law

call back March 2020 , when we were all stuck inside watching a kooky gay big cat owner do battle with another dotty tiger - print - tire big computerized tomography sanctuary owner ? One of those catty quality just make a big win in Washington .

On Tuesday , President Joe Bidensigned into lawH.R. 263 , get laid as the “ Big Cat Public Safety Act , ” which puts a slew of young amendment on an older legal philosophy that regulates wildlife trafficking . Thelegislationbans private citizen from education , purchasing , and transporting big bozo , mandates possessor file animals they already own , in effect phasing out secret ownership of adult cats . The pecker , which nem con passed the Senate in the beginning this month , also throttle public touch with six coinage : lions , tigers , mountain lion , leopards , snow leopards , and jaguar .

The bill ’s journey has been a long , odd one , and was partly document in the hit 2020 Netflix miniseries “ Tiger King . ” Carole Baskin , the owner of a Tampa - based big cat chancel and an animate being rightfield activist , was one of the key advocates for the bill ’s passage . In the series , Baskin was shoot travel to Congress to buttonhole for the rights of big cat-o'-nine-tails , wear her signature animal mark habiliment .

Carole Baskin at an event in 2021.

Carole Baskin at an event in 2021.Photo: Tasos Katopodis (Getty Images)

The Netflix show focused on the rivalry between Baskin and Joseph Maldonado - Passage , otherwise love as Joe Exotic , who possess an brute park in Oklahoma that Baskin alleged exploited and shout big cats . In response to Baskin ’s allegement about the benefit of his fauna , Maldonado - Passage made claim in the documentary that Baskin had fed the body of her former husband to the cats on her holding .

The types of adeptness that the law will be the most damaging to — roadside zoos and other small , private animal car park that encourage pet sonny boy — are , like the cats they house , endangered . Marty Irby , executive director of Animal Wellness Action , told E&E Newsthat the number of these type of validation is already much smaller than when the first version of the vizor was stick in more than a decade ago . Back then , Irby say , there were more than 60 cub - petting constitution across the country ; now , the number is in the single digit .

“ Public consciousness has shut down most of them already , and Covid had an wallop on close a few of them , as well , ” Irby recite E&E.

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Cub necking and cubs used for photo opportunity are considered the most negative pattern to encourage breeding and trade big kat , since the babies chop-chop mature past the age when it is safe to interact with them — and become less worthful as they get on and get larger . There are around 340 facilities in the country that have license to multiply and show large cats ; these facilities will have to implement a 15 - groundwork roadblock between the public and the computed tomography move forward .

At the end of the Netflix series , Maldonado - Passage was charged with charter two men to mutilate Baskin and was doom to more than 20 twelvemonth in prison house in 2019 . Since the series ’s ending , Baskin has been on its subsequent series as well as “ terpsichore with the Stars ” and hasgiven generously to political candidatesacross both party . In avideoposted to Facebook earlier this month celebrating the account ’s enactment out of the Senate , Baskin , sit around in front of a Panthera tigris - striped and leopard - spotted curtain , said her years of advocacy for this lawmaking had made her the target of “ narcissistic , abusive , grievous men ” involved in the big cat trade .

“ I am thankful that apparently , I am harder to intimidate and obliterate than some thought ! ” she tell .

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