On Friday the House of Representatives approved the Big Cat Public Safety Act to prohibit keeping tigers, lions and other big cat species as pets, and ban direct public contact.
All Democrats and and 63 Republicans voted for the bill. Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline was among the 134 who voted NO.
According to the Humane Society, which supported the bill:
Big cat ownership is an epidemic in the U.S. Untold numbers of captive big cats live in shoddy roadside zoos or as pets living in homes. More often than not, these large, dangerous, wide-roaming apex predators are kept in small, barren cages where they can barely turn around. They are improperly fed, are not provided with appropriate veterinary care, and have no means to express their complex emotional and behavioral needs. Cubs are ripped away from their mothers to be offered to paying customers for feeding and petting sessions and for photo ops. Keeping big cats in these settings is not only inhumane but is also a serious public safety issue.
So Cline maintains the “perfect” record of opposing legislation protecting animals from cruelty that earned him a ZERO rating from the Humane Society’s Legislative Fund.
Of course this law would protect humans too.
Gene Zitver is the author of ClineWatch.
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