The law comes about a year after the release of the series, "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," which profiled individuals who owned big cats and ran private zoos, sanctuaries and wildlife attractions, a report said.
The popular Netflix docuseries "Tiger King" has shed light on some of the harmful conditions big cats have had to endure at the hands of their owners. The Big Cat Public Safety Act has been introduced by a bipartisan group of United States senators that would help to protect these animals by banning ownership by unlicensed individuals and ban public contact with cubs at exhibits, according to The New York Times.
On Monday, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, proposed the bill with Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.
The law comes about a year after the release of the series, "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," which profiled individuals who owned big cats and ran private zoos, sanctuaries and wildlife attractions including Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldanado-Passage, who is now serving a 22-year prison sentence for a murder-for-hire plot and multiple counts of violating federal wildlife laws, ABC News reported.
“The series showed abysmal conditions big cats including tigers, lions, and leopards, as well as their cubs, live in throughout the United States and the immense risks private ownership of these animals poses for the individuals who keep them, the general public, and the animals themselves,” the senators said in a statement.
Last year, the Big Cat Public Safety Act did not make it to the floor for a vote, but this time around Blumenthal said he was hopeful that with Democrats in control and some Republicans already supportive of the legislation, this is the year the bill will finally clear the Senate, The New York Times reported.
“What I’ve seen is a groundswell of support,” Blumenthal said on Tuesday. “I don’t want to overstate it, but it really seems like an idea whose time has come.”
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