WASHINGTON, July 29 : More tigers are kept as pets in the U.S. than roam free in the wild, campaigners say, as they call for tough new laws to ban the practice on International Tiger Day.
While just 3,000 tigers inhabit forests across Asia and Russia, it's estimated that as many as 5,000 are kept captive in small cages in U.S. backyards.
"The main reason for all of these cats in backyards and basements and garages across America is that it's legal for people to have their picture taken with a cute little tiger cub or lion cub," Carole Baskin, founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue, explains to CNN.
"And those cubs are only cute and manageable until they're about 12 weeks old. By the time they're 13 weeks old, the people who are using them for these photo booths find that it costs $10,000 a year to take care of them, so they give them away. They sell them," says Baskin.      ?CNN