Big Cats: Big Threat or Cuddly Kitten?

Zuzana Kukol, REXANO co-founder and Las-Vegas tiger trainer, with Pebbles, the tiger.

Kukol co-founded the website with Scott Shoemaker in January of this year to provide information on exotic animal ownership to legislators and the public, Kukol said. 

“We are sick of legislators listening to small, extremist groups of animal rights,” she said. “We’re trying to stop this craziness.”

Right now, Kukol has her eye on a proposed federal bill known as Haley’s Act that would ban direct contact between big cats and a member of the public, such as picture taking. Zoos are exempt from the proposed legislation.

In California, a man and his wife recently pled guilty to federal charges after their Siberian tiger wandered around a Ventura County neighborhood for four weeks in 2005 until it was shot and killed by authorities.

Big cats that escape are unlikely to cause any harm, Kukol says. “These animals, when they get out of their cage, they are out of their territory, unsure,” she said. “They just hide and wait for someone to rescue them.”

There are always going to be irresponsible owners, but, “Laws don’t stop idiots,” she said.

Most of the people killed by tigers and other large exotic animals were handlers, Kukol says. “It’s an occupational hazard, but we have chosen this,” she said.

A former resident of communist Czechoslovakia, Kukol said she is particularly weary of any laws that might limit people’s rights, including animal ownership.

Breed-specific laws are also on the group’s radar as is the California Healthy Pets Act that would mandate spay and neuter laws for many pets.

“We don’t need more laws,” she said. “We need laws enforced.”