Roadmap to Closing Captive Tiger Facilities of Concern

“Current estimates indicate that there are at least 8,900 tigers being held in more than 300 facilities in East and Southeast Asia. Over 6,000 of these tigers are located in China, with the remaining animals found almost exclusively in Thailand (approx. 1,635), Lao PDR (451); and Vietnam (395)….The rate at which tigers are bred, traded from one facility to another, and slaughtered for illegal trade is not known but is believed to be high, accounting for the rapid shifts in captive tiger estimates.

Additionally, there are significant concerns around captive tiger facilities and their role in the tiger trade in Myanmar, South Africa, and some EU Member States, as well as the large captive tiger population in the United States.

Tiger farming represents a significant animal welfare problem, with issues including indiscriminate breeding, crowding,
inappropriate housing systems, genetic abnormalities causing acute suffering, cruel practices perpetuated in order to
better control animals, inhumane slaughtering practices, poor diet, and early removal of cubs from mothers.

From a conservation perspective, the operation and scale of these captive tiger facilities of concern are a significant
obstacle to the protection and recovery of wild tiger populations, as it allows for two highly negative pressures on the
species to persist as they:

• undermine enforcement efforts: the movement (or leakage) of tiger products (including whole tigers, parts or derivatives) from such facilities to consumer markets complicates and thus undermines enforcement efforts aimed at stopping the trade in tiger products.

• help perpetuate (and grow) demand: The availability of any tiger products from captive tiger facilities serves to legitimise and normalise demand for such items. Given the high cost of raising tigers in captivity, these facilities have a vested interest in promoting demand for their products, whether by putting pressure on governments to allow their sale or by exploiting buyers who are unaware of the law or willing to ignore it. Given consumers’ preference for wild sourced tiger parts and products, even a modest expansion in the demand for tiger products could increase poaching pressures on wild populations.”