Creatures in Crisis

Can you own a tiger in the US? The Big Cat Public Safety Act explained

Published September 27, 2026

Photograph of a tiger (Panthera tigris) lying in grass behind a chain-link fence, looking toward the camera
A tiger recovered during Operation Jungle Book, a Los Angeles area case in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported seizing a large number and variety of animals. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Not as a new pet. Since December 20, 2022, the Big Cat Public Safety Act has made it a federal crime for private individuals to buy, sell, breed or take possession of a lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, clouded leopard, jaguar, cheetah or cougar, or any hybrid of them. People who already owned one could keep it only if they registered it by June 18, 2023. A House bill introduced in January 2026, H.R. 7159, would widen the exemptions, but it has not moved since a February hearing.

Most exotic pet questions have state-by-state answers, which is why this site has a legality checker. Big cats are the exception. For eight species there is now one federal rule that applies in every state, sitting on top of whatever the state says. This page is based on the statute, the Fish and Wildlife Service regulation and the congressional hearing record. It is not legal advice.

What does the Big Cat Public Safety Act ban?

The Act amended an older law, the Captive Wildlife Safety Act of 2003, which itself sits inside the Lacey Act. The 2003 law only barred moving big cats across state lines or borders for sale. It left owning and breeding them to the states. The 2022 Act went further. Under the current text of 16 U.S.C. 3372(e), it is unlawful for any person to:

Two words did most of the work: "breed" and "possess." Before 2022, the Service noted in its 2023 rule, there was no federal law on owning or breeding big cats unless another federal law, such as the ban on taking listed wildlife, was broken. A person in a state with weak rules could keep and breed tigers as long as nobody sold one across a state line. Now possession itself is the offense unless an exception applies. The Fish and Wildlife Service regulation that carries out the Act, 50 CFR part 14, subpart K, also makes it unlawful to attempt any of those acts, and it defines "breed" broadly: to facilitate reproduction, "whether intentionally or negligently," or to fail to prevent it.

The service published those rules as an interim rule on June 12, 2023 (88 FR 38358), effective the same day. In it, the agency quoted a 2022 House committee report estimating that about 20,000 big cats were kept in private ownership in the United States, often bought as cubs or bred for photo opportunities and then sold into the pet trade once they grew too large to handle.

Which cats count as big cats?

The regulation, at 50 CFR 14.252, names eight species and every hybrid between them:

Hybrids are covered whether they were produced naturally or artificially, and the regulation names the liger (a male lion and a female tiger) and the tiglon (a male tiger and a female lion) as examples. A black "panther," the Service says, is a dark leopard, cougar or jaguar and is covered too.

One wrinkle matters for the pending bill. The definition written into the statute itself, 16 U.S.C. 3371(h), still reads "any live species of lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, or cougar or any hybrid of such species." Snow leopards and clouded leopards are named in the regulation, and the snow leopard is named in the statute's barrier rule, but neither appears in that short definition. Supporters of H.R. 7159 argue the two were swept in only because "leopard" is in their common names. The Service has listed both as covered in its rules since the 2003 law, and the 2023 rule repeats that list.

What is not on the list surprises people. Servals, caracals, bobcats, lynx, ocelots and hybrid house cats such as the savannah are not federal "big cats." They can still be banned or permitted under state and city law, which the serval and savannah cat page walks through.

Who can still keep a lion or a tiger?

The Act keeps a short list of exceptions. Everyone else is barred. Under 50 CFR 14.257, the ban does not apply to:

Notice who is missing. A private collector with a state permit is not on the list. Neither is a USDA Class B licensee, the license held by animal dealers, brokers and auction operators. That gap is one of the things H.R. 7159 would change.

What happened to big cats people already owned?

The Act did not order anyone to give up a cat they already had. Instead it gave owners 180 days to register. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, registration closed at 11:59 p.m. on June 18, 2023, and forms postmarked after that date were rejected.

Under 50 CFR 14.255, each registered animal had to be born before December 20, 2022 (or conceived before that date and born after it, with proof), had to have been in the owner's possession by that date, and had to be marked with a microchip or tattoo.

Registration came with conditions that last for the life of the animal. A registered owner must not breed, acquire or sell any big cat, and the regulation says that applies whether the activity is within one state or across state lines. The owner must not allow public contact. The registration must be updated within 10 calendar days if the cat dies or moves, if ownership changes, or if the breeding or contact protocols change. Records must be kept for five years after the animal's death or transfer, and Service officers may inspect them.

When a registered owner can no longer care for a cat, it cannot be sold. It can be donated to an exempt zoo, sanctuary, state institution or veterinarian, or abandoned to the federal government, as long as the owner gets no profit or other benefit from the handover. The same two options are what the Service tells people who missed the deadline: donate the animal to a qualifying facility, or contact its Office of Law Enforcement about abandonment.

The effect is a sunset. Registered cats cannot legally produce replacements, so the privately owned population outside zoos and sanctuaries can only shrink as the animals age and die.

No. This was the practice the Act was most plainly aimed at. Exempt exhibitors must not let anyone come into direct physical contact with a big cat unless that person is a trained professional employee or contractor (or an employee in training), a licensed veterinarian or a veterinary student with one, or someone directly supporting the facility's conservation program under narrow conditions. That last group only qualifies if the contact is not commercial and is incidental to husbandry under a published, peer-edited population management plan filed with the Service.

"Direct contact" is defined as any situation in which a person "may potentially touch" the animal. A photo session with a cub on a visitor's lap is exactly that, whatever the cub's age.

During public exhibition of a lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, jaguar, cougar or hybrid, the animal must be at least 15 feet from members of the public unless a permanent barrier prevents contact. Cheetahs and clouded leopards are not named in that distance rule, although the no-contact rule still covers them.

Why the focus on cubs? Matt Bryant, a retired Fish and Wildlife Service special agent who ran law enforcement operations in north Texas and Oklahoma, described the economics to a House subcommittee in written testimony on February 4, 2026. Before the Act, operators could offer public handling of cubs up to roughly four months old. He said one operator he investigated charged $55 for a six-minute session with a cub, and that the short window drove what the industry called "speed breeding": taking cubs from their mothers at birth so the mothers would come back into season. When the cubs aged out, he testified, operators sold them, including to private buyers, or killed them.

What are the penalties?

Under 16 U.S.C. 3373, a person who knowingly violates the big cat provisions can be fined up to $20,000, imprisoned for up to five years, or both. Each violation is a separate offense, and it can be prosecuted in any district where the defendant held the animal. The Secretary of the Interior can also assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each knowing violation, after notice and a hearing.

The Service adds that animals held in violation of the Act are subject to seizure and forfeiture. There is a second layer too. As the Service puts it, "most big cats are listed as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act," and harming or capturing a listed animal is a separate federal offense. The page on what happens if you own an illegal exotic pet covers what seizure and prosecution look like in practice.

Does state law still matter?

Yes, because the federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling. According to a February 2026 briefing memo from the House Natural Resources Committee's majority staff, the 2003 law had expressly preserved each state's authority over big cats within its borders, and the 2022 Act removed that language, so the federal possession ban now applies even to animals that never cross a state line. A state can still be stricter, with its own permits or bans.

Our explainer on why exotic pet laws differ by state shows how the layers fit. For big cats the practical answer is simple: if you are not an exempt facility or a registered pre-2023 owner, no state permit makes private ownership legal.

What would H.R. 7159 change?

Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona introduced H.R. 7159, the Protecting Local Zoos Act of 2026, on January 20, 2026. According to the bill text, it would:

At the February 4 hearing of the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, supporters and opponents read the same provisions very differently. Mindy Stinner, chair of the Feline Conservation Foundation, testified that the bill makes "necessary and practical clarifications," arguing that small facilities depend on trained volunteers, that the Service's export guidance blocks legitimate breeding-program transfers between zoos, and that some licensed businesses registered in error and are now barred from taking in more cats.

The Department of the Interior's statement for the record went further than the bill. It said the Fish and Wildlife Service "would support all Americans holding a Class A, B, or C license" under the Animal Welfare Act being exempted from the Act, and offered to work with the sponsor.

Opponents see the same changes as a way back to the old trade. Bryant told the subcommittee the bill "threatens" both wildlife and communities. Humane World for Animals, in an April 1, 2026 post by Kitty Block and Sara Amundson, said it would "significantly expand the private breeding and international trade of big cats," and argued that anyone could be named a volunteer long enough to pay for contact with a cat.

Where does the bill stand?

Stalled, for now. The official bill status record shows referral to the Committee on Natural Resources on January 20, 2026, referral to the subcommittee on January 28, and the hearing on February 4. It has two cosponsors, Representative Darren Soto of Florida and Representative Carol Miller of West Virginia. As of September 27, 2026, GovTrack still lists it as introduced, with no markup, no committee vote and no floor vote. We found no Senate companion.

A bill that has had a hearing can still be marked up quickly, so a quiet record is not a guarantee. If H.R. 7159 moves, this page will be updated.

Key facts and dates

What does this have to do with endangered animals?

Of the eight covered species, only the tiger is in this catalog, recorded as Endangered. The others are threatened to different degrees in the wild, and the Act does not change their Red List status. The Act is about people and captive animals: the Service's 2023 rule says it protects the public from the dangers of private ownership and strengthens "the Service's ability to combat wildlife trafficking." That second aim is the link to the wild. A large, loosely tracked captive population makes it harder to tell a legal animal from a trafficked one, the same enforcement problem our page on wildlife trade and the catalog describes for other species.

If you see a big cat offered for sale, a cub being handled by visitors, or a cat kept by someone who is plainly not an exempt facility, the Fish and Wildlife Service asks people to contact its Office of Law Enforcement at LawEnforcement@fws.gov. Status on our tiger dossier measures extinction risk; the law on this page governs what people may do with the animals already here. For international trade in big cats and their parts, see CITES and the pet trade.

Quick answers

Can a private person legally own a tiger in the US?
Only in one narrow case: the person already owned that tiger on December 20, 2022 and registered it with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by June 18, 2023. Registered owners may keep those animals for life but may not breed, buy, sell or acquire big cats or let the public touch them.
Which cats does the Big Cat Public Safety Act cover?
The Fish and Wildlife Service regulation lists eight species and their hybrids: lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, clouded leopard, jaguar, cheetah and cougar. Ligers and tiglons count. Servals, caracals, bobcats, lynx and savannah cats are not on the list, although state and local law may still restrict them.
Is cub petting still legal?
No. Exempt exhibitors may not let members of the public come into direct physical contact with a big cat of any age, and registered private owners must not allow public contact either. Only trained staff, veterinarians and a tightly defined group of conservation program workers may touch the animals.
What is the penalty for violating the Big Cat Public Safety Act?
A knowing violation can bring a fine of up to $20,000, up to five years in prison, or both, and each violation is a separate offense. The Fish and Wildlife Service can also assess civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, and animals held illegally can be seized and forfeited.
Has H.R. 7159 passed?
No. The Protecting Local Zoos Act of 2026 was introduced on January 20, 2026 and had a House subcommittee hearing on February 4, 2026. As of September 27, 2026 it had not been marked up or voted on, and there was no Senate version on the public record we checked.