“Some people want lions as pets, but we don’t allow it.”
I couldn’t quickly find the number for lions, but supposedly there are 10,000 to 15,000 tigers kept as pets or in private facilities in the U.S. That’s more than there are in the wild in the world.
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/bigcats/a/bigcatsaspets.htm
Hey, at least those tiger owners seem to keep them off the street and out of their neighbors’ yards!