It is absolutely disgusting that a mainstream publication like Smithsonian would print an article like that. This article is full of lies - in fact the entire thing is a joke. Don't they even have an editor to check these things?
There are NOT more captive tigers in the USA than in the wild. That is an urban legend repeated by anti-zoo extremists with not one shred of evidence. I would challenge them to come up with a list of addresses proving even one thousand tigers in the country, let alone the five thousand to ten thousand they claim.
The fact that they quote Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue immediately discredits the entire article. I have been to her compound when it was a breeding center and I used to be on their mailing list and I can tell you for a fact that they print outright lies.
The Big Cat Safety Act - as the article states - would only exempt AZA accredited zoos. This means all ZAA accredited zoos as well as unacredited USDA licensed zoos would be hit. This is NOT a measure to just stop pet tigers, it is a step to shutting down zoos entirely.
The author of this article was fed lies by animal extremists and is either too ignorant or too lazy to spend time researching the facts.