Dave McConnelln, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Celebrities frequently bring their causes to Congress. This week, a star of Alfred Hitchcock films tried to get lawmakers interested in keeping lions, tigers and other big cats only in zoos.
Tippi Hedren warned a new animal threat looms as more people try to adopt big cats as pets, often with dangerous results.
“A little 4 and a half year old by had his arm ripped off by his uncle’s pet tiger. By the miracle’s of modern medicine they were able to reattach it,” she says.
Hedren says its easier to put a tiger in your backyard, then get a dog license.
“(Tigers are) the most dangerous animals in the world and yet our country has said, ‘Sure, go breed them, sell to them anybody who has the money, to anyone foolish enough to pay,'” she says.
Hedren’s pleas for Congress to pass a law keeping big cats in zoos or accredited animal refuges went answered in the last session of Congress, but she vows to get action when lawmakers return after the elections.
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