Legislation Breakdown: H.R. 1380 “The Big Cat Public Safety Act”

September 19, 2020 - Rachel Garner

Executive Summary

H.R. 1380, also known as the Big Cat Public Safety Act, is a proposed bill that would amend the requirements put in place by the Captive Wildlife Safety Act with the goal of enhancing protections for captive big cats within the United States. Messages promoting the bill characterize it as having two specific goals: ending the practice of private individuals keeping big cats as pets, and ending the use of big cats in “pay to play” schemes such as photo ops and cub petting sessions. However, the impact of H.R. 1380 will have far broader repercussions for all big cats in the United States than these characterizations would suggest. 

This breakdown provides an analysis of H.R. 1380 by taking an objective approach to examining the text. Rather than address the sentiments motivating this piece of legislation, this piece assesses the bill for functional characteristics: will it achieve what legislators intend? Does it do so effectively, efficiently, and in a way that protects animal welfare? Does it fulfill the desires indicated by public support? This analysis relies on a close examination of the relevant laws and rule-making processes, alongside regulatory precedent, to develop an understanding of how the bill’s requirements are likely to be implemented. 

The results of this assessment are cause for major concern when held up to those criteria: H.R. 1380 is riddled with ambiguous language, implements illogical and incompatible restrictions on exempted entities, and places the responsibility of enforcement on an agency that does not have experience regulating the business operations of the entities it would now oversee. As written, the bill does not even consistently ban the practices it is characterized as opposing, and instead imposes a range of badly-defined strictures that have the potential to seriously hinder or prevent the operation of reputable zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. Given the vast range of possible interpretations of the text by USFWS, the bill’s impacts could, at best, require many exhibitors to conduct major renovations to existing big cat exhibits; at worst, it could completely undermine current staffing practices and cause irrevocable damage to the long-term sustainability of conservation breeding programs.  

While enacting legislation to ensure the welfare of captive big cats is a laudable goal, the wording of H.R. 1380 cannot be guaranteed to do so successfully. Instead, it creates sweeping restrictions with the goal of impacting the areas where welfare issues are likely to occur in passing, and, as a result, risks the viability of the big cat management community as a whole. The bill is so broadly written that it is currently impossible to gauge whether it will truly protect the big cats it aims to help and avoid harmful impacts on those housed in responsible, credible facilities. 

Laws that will impact the welfare of living animals and the viability of conservation breeding programs for critically endangered species must be crafted carefully, thoughtfully, and precisely in order to ensure they achieve their goals without extraneous negative impacts. H.R. 1380 as written neither meets that duty of care nor fulfills the commitments its proponents have made to the public. The range of possible interpretations of the language in H.R. 1380 is so broad and potentially harmful that it is necessary to insist that the language be clarified before being passed into law.  

Read the full analysis here.

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RACHEL GARNER

Rachel is an educator and animal science writer. With prior professional experience in zookeeping, visitor education, shelter behavior management, and more, she works to translate pertinent field-specific knowledge into comprehensive explanations about current animal related topics.