Prominent members of the animal protection community gathered recently in Los Angeles to celebrate the 40th anniversary of PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society), whose renowned advocacy efforts on behalf of wild animals used for entertainment and top-tier 2,300-acre animal sanctuary in northern California have positioned the organization as an authoritative voice within the animal protection movement. PAWS’s 40th anniversary conference, “Ending Wild Animals as Entertainment,” attracted leading advocates for elephants, marine mammals, big cats, and other charismatic species. Speakers represented more than half a dozen countries, making it a truly global event. 

At the conference celebration dinner, cofounder Ed Stewart presented the PAWS Advocacy Award to Tigers in America for “firm resolve, tenacity of purpose, and steadfast perseverance in building coalitions while advocating for the health, welfare, and protection of captive big cats,” noting that “Tigers in America has done more than any other organization to protect tigers in this country and in the rest of the world.”

Since its 2012 inception, Tigers in America (TIA) has granted approximately $2 million and conducted rescue efforts that relocate and rehabilitate captive big cats to safety, health, and permanent sanctuary from hotbeds of abuse, neglect, and exploitation such as roadside zoos, circuses, and other poor-welfare environments fueled by a network of tiger breeders. 

PAWS has been among TIA’s most vital partners in identifying the most egregious perpetrators of big cat exploitation, rehoming and rehabilitating animal victims, and providing high-quality lifelong animal care, with the ongoing collaboration between the two organizations stemming from a fateful 2012 meeting between their founders. Stewart’s revelation of the shocking statistic that there are more captive tigers living in the United States than in the wild globally served as a sobering call to action that spurred TIA’s work to turn the tide on this issue in the years since. 

“Ed’s tutoring, mentoring, and unwavering encouragement over the last twelve years is largely responsible for our achievements,” TIA cofounder and president Bill Nimmo remarked. “Receiving this award is quite an honor and definitely a humbling experience.” 

TIA’s funding and rescue efforts have collectively benefited over 500 big cats, including more than 350 tigers, and the number of U.S. circuses with tiger acts has fallen from 33 to 2, with Ringling Brothers as the most notable among the circuses that have closed. The operations of 18 tiger breeder kingpins nationwide, including “Tiger King” Joe Exotic, have also been shut down. 

Bringing some of these cases to a successful resolution entailed close collaborations between TIA and its fellow members of the funder affinity group Animal Grantmakers, including the Summerlee Foundation, Kirkpatrick Foundation, and A Kinder World Foundation. 

Since 2019, no new facilities with tigers have been granted a USDA exhibition license. Additionally, TIA provided U.S. lawmakers with crucial intelligence that facilitated passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act in 2022, which ends the private ownership of big cats as pets and prohibits exhibitors from allowing public contact with big cats, including cubs. A fruitful partnership that began in 2017 between TIA and a genetics researcher studying at Stanford University at the time, Dr. Ellie Armstrong, led to the tiger genome being fully sequenced, providing richer data to inform investigations of illegal trafficking in tigers and their parts. Four years ago, TIA expanded the scope of its activities to protect big cats outside the U.S. – including in European circus shutdowns and in Middle East conflict zones. 

Regarding TIA’s future, Nimmo stated, “TIA’s rescue work will continue until the abuse is stopped.”

To learn more about Tigers in America, please visit https://tigersinamerica.org/.