Research overview: welfare and safety of privately owned big cats

Private ownership of tigers, lions and other big cats, historically widespread in some countries, raises acute welfare and public-safety concerns. This overview surveys the issues: inadequate enclosures, improper nutrition leading to metabolic bone disease, declawing and defanging, lack of veterinary expertise, behavioural deprivation, and the difficulty of providing for large carnivores in private settings. It discusses the public-safety record of escapes and attacks, the surplus-animal problem when owners can no longer cope, the burden placed on sanctuaries, and legislative responses restricting private possession and public contact. The synthesis frames private big-cat ownership as a structural welfare problem, in which mismatch between the animals' needs and typical private capacity tends to produce poor outcomes.