Eric Goode

At the end of the day, the best sanctuaries are places like the Performing Animal Welfare Society in Northern California, where he really provides his tigers large spaces. And there are people in the private sector that do a really good job with animals.

Animal rights can be as extreme as not riding a horse, or not wearing leather, not having a pet at all. Animal welfare advocates are preventing the suffering of animals. And then there's conservation and species conservation and what conservation biologists do.

I guess you could say I'm a closeted animal person, because a lot of my life I did it in secrecy. I was always fascinated with exotic animals, particularly reptiles, from the age of 6 when I got a pet tortoise.

What you do in Oklahoma with tigers in these roadside zoos would be frowned on if it opened in the L.A. basin or New York. I think it's a lack of education. And people believe we should be able to have a tiger, because this is America - who should stop us?

I would say the big cat people see tigers as sort of a status symbol, as you would a Ferrari or fancy car collection. They have the animals to elevate their position. It makes them special.