1.This Act may be cited as the
Big Cats and Public Safety Protection
Act
.
2.The Congress finds the following:
(1)The global illicit trade in wildlife may be
worth up to $20,000,000,000 annually and the value of United States legal
wildlife trade was recently estimated at $2,800,000,000 annually.
(2)The illegal trade
in prohibited wildlife species (as that term is defined in the Lacey Act
Amendments of 1981) stimulates demand and expands markets in which those
species can be illegally sold.
(3)The private
ownership of and commerce in prohibited wildlife species has a substantial and
detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the American people and
on the species themselves.
(4)Activities related
to prohibited wildlife species that are not an integral part of the interstate
or foreign commerce in such species, such as private ownership and possession,
nonetheless have a substantial and direct effect upon interstate commerce
because—
(A)after breeding,
many prohibited wildlife species are transported in interstate commerce;
and
(B)privately owned
prohibited wildlife species have been transported in interstate commerce before
transfer of ownership.
(5)Private ownership
of prohibited wildlife species contributes to swelling the interstate traffic
in those species.
(6)Prohibited
wildlife species in private ownership or possession, or distributed intrastate,
are fungible commodities that cannot be differentiated from prohibited wildlife
species possessed or distributed interstate. Thus, it is not feasible to
distinguish, in terms of control, between prohibited wildlife species in
private ownership or possession or distributed intrastate and prohibited
wildlife species possessed and distributed interstate.
(7)Federal control of
the intrastate private ownership and breeding of prohibited wildlife species is
essential to the effective control of the interstate incidents of traffic in
such species.
(8)The United States
is a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora, which was designed to protect species of wild fauna and
flora against over-exploitation through international trade.
3.Section 2 of the Lacey Act Amendments of
1981 (16 U.S.C. 3371) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(l)The term breed means to
facilitate the reproduction of a prohibited wildlife species for commercial
use.
.
4.Section 3(a) of such Act (16 U.S.C. 3372(a))
is amended—
(1)in paragraph
(2)—
(A)by adding
or
after the semicolon at the end of subparagraph (A);
and
(B)by striking
subparagraph (C);
(2)by striking
or
after the semicolon at the end of paragraph (3), by
redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5), and by inserting after paragraph
(3) the following:
(4)subject to subsection (e), to import,
export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, purchase, breed, possess, or own any
prohibited wildlife species; or
;
and
(3)in paragraph (5),
as so redesignated, by striking (1) through (3)
and inserting
(1) through (4)
.
5.Nonapplicability
of offenses
(a)Section 3(e) of such
Act (16 U.S.C. 3372(e)) is amended—
(1)by amending
paragraph (1) to read as follows:
(1)Subsection (a)(4)
does not apply to—
(A)importation,
exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition, breeding, possession,
ownership, or purchase of an animal of a prohibited wildlife species, by a
person that, under regulations prescribed under paragraph (3), is described in
subparagraph (A), (B), (C), or (D) paragraph (2) with respect to that species;
and
(B)transportation,
possession, or ownership of an animal of a prohibited wildlife species, by a
person that, under regulations prescribed under paragraph (3), is described in
subparagraph (E) of paragraph (2) with respect to that
animal.
;
and
(2)in paragraph
(2)—
(A)by amending
subparagraph (A) to read as follows:
(A)is a zoo accredited by the Association of
Zoos and Aquariums;
;
and
(B)in subparagraph (C)—
(i)by
striking is an accredited
;
(ii)in
clause (iii), by striking and
;
(iii)in
clause (iv), by striking or
and inserting and
;
and
(iv)by
adding at the end the following:
(v)does not allow the transport and display of
animals
off-site;
;
(C)in subparagraph
(D), by striking the period at the end and inserting ; or
;
and
(D)by adding at the
end the following:
(E)is in possession of one or more animals of
the prohibited wildlife species, that—
(i)were born before
the date of enactment of this
subparagraph; and
(ii)are registered
with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service within 6 months after the
date of promulgation of regulations implementing this subparagraph by the
Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of
Agriculture.
.
(b)Not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Secretary of Agriculture, acting
through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, shall promulgate
regulations implementing the amendments made by this section.
6.
(a)Section 4(a)(1) of
such Act (16 U.S.C. 3373(a)(1)) is amended—
(1)by inserting
(a)(4),
after subsections
; and
(2)by striking
subsection (d)
and inserting subsection (a)(4),
(d),
.
(b)Section 4(d) of such Act (16 U.S.C. 3373(d)) is
amended—
(1)in paragraph
(1)—
(A)in subparagraph
(A), by striking or
after the comma at the end;
(B)in subparagraph (B), by adding
or
after the comma at the end; and
(C)by inserting after
subparagraph (B) the following:
(C)knowingly violates paragraph (4) of section
3(a),
;
and
(2)in paragraph (2),
by inserting , or in the exercise of due care should know that the
conduct violates paragraph (4) of section 3(a),
after treaty or
regulation
.
7.Section 5(a) of such Act (16 U.S.C. 3374(a))
is amended—
(1)in paragraph (1),
by inserting bred, possessed, owned,
after
acquired,
; and
(2)in paragraph
(2)—
(A)by inserting
breeding, possessing, owning,
after acquiring,
;
and
(B)by inserting
or involved the breeding, possession, or ownership of a prohibited
wildlife species
.