Animal News

New law on 'big cats' will ban cruel possession of tigers in Texas and U.S.

A tiger kept as a pet in Houston got loose in 2021.

Photo courtesy of Kiki Baker-Rios

Animal advocates in Dallas, Texas, and across the U.S. are celebrating the December 6 passage by the US Senate of a major law that will intervene on behalf of "big cats."

Called the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263/S. 1210), the bill, which was sponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Richard Burr (R-NC), aims to end abusive practices associated with keeping big cats in captivity.

The Senate's passage follows the approval by the House of Representatives in July. All it needs now is a sign-off by President Joe Biden, who's expected to give the thumbs-up.

First introduced in 2012, the Big Cat Public Safety Act would:

prohibit individuals from possessing lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, cougars, or any hybrids
prohibit public petting, playing with, feeding, and photo ops with cubs

It will apply only to big cats kept as pets. Sanctuaries, universities, and zoos would be exempt. Current big cat owners would be grandfathered in but would be required to register their animals.

As a release from the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute notes, photo ops with cubs create a breeding cycle that results in a surplus of tigers who get dumped once they are no longer cute, manageable cubs. Cub-petting facilities have also been known to kill tigers once they get too big.

Thousands of big cats are thought to be in private hands, posing a threat not only to the public but also to first responders and animal control officers, who put their lives at risk when responding to animals that have escaped or attacked. The Big Cat Public Safety Act has been endorsed by a large number of law enforcement organizations and officers.

Texas has had multiple potentially dangerous incidents with big cats, including a baby tiger cub that was being kept illegally in the Dallas home of a mediocre rapper named Trapboy Freddy in 2022, and a pet tiger that got loose in Houston in 2021.

Brittany Peet, a lawyer for the PETA Foundation whose lawsuits against big cat abusers like Tiger King villains Tim Stark and Jeff Lowe helped pave the way for this legislation, says it's impossible to know exactly how many big cats are being held in Texas.

"Texas has some laws regulating ownership of wild animals, but enforcement is left to each individual county, making it impossible to get an accurate count," Peet says.

"But the other part of the law that bans public contact will have a huge impact on the population of captive big cats," she says. "If cub-petting facilities are no longer allowed, then there's no incentive to keep breeding cubs."

animals

Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

politics