Regulations To Implement the Big Cat Public Safety Act

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are amending our implementing regulations for the Captive Wildlife Safety Act (CWSA) by incorporating the requirements of the Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA) in the CWSA regulations. On December 20, 2022, the BCPSA amended the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to clarify provisions enacted by the CWSA and to further the conservation of certain wildlife species. The BCPSA makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, or in a manner substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or breed or possess prohibited wildlife species (lions, tigers, leopards, snow leopards, clouded leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, and cougars, or any hybrids thereof), with certain exceptions. The BCPSA also requires an entity or individual who does not qualify for one of the other exceptions and is in possession of any prohibited wildlife species to register each such animal with the Service not later than June 18, 2023, allowing pre-BCPSA owners to register their pre-BCPSA big cats to continue to possess them under the pre-BCPSA exception.