Topeka ? With hopes of keeping lions, tigers, bears and other dangerous creatures away from the general public, the House approved legislation praised by two national groups to strengthen the regulation of exotic animals in the state.

Legislators drafted the bill last month in response to last year’s fatal tiger mauling of a southeast Kansas teenager. The measure requires owners of exotic animals to keep them confined so that they can’t come in contact with people and makes it illegal to allow such animals to “run at large.”

The House vote was 101-24. The Senate approved the measure unanimously two weeks ago but must consider House amendments.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, the bill’s biggest supporter, said he’ll ask his colleagues to accept the House’s changes and send the measure to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

“We need to get it out,” said Umbarger, R-Thayer, in whose district the mauling occurred.

Praising the bill were International Fund for Animal Welfare, in Hyannis, Mass., and the Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington. The International Fund plans to pursue federal legislation, and spokeswoman Josephine Martell said a new Kansas law would create momentum for such an effort.

“It will be very much driven from Kansas,” she said.

Though no legislators have publicly disputed the need for better regulation of exotic animals, some have wondered whether their colleagues are moving too quickly.

“I wasn’t convinced that this particular bill found the right balance,” said Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe. “I’m always cautious about government regulation as a reaction to one particular incident, even if that incident was very tragic.”

In August, Haley Hilderbrand, a 17-year-old Labette County High School senior, was bitten by a Siberian tiger at the Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary in Mound Valley, southwest of Parsons. She was standing next to the 7-year-old animal for a class photo when it attacked her while being restrained by its owner. The animal then was killed.

The bill, backed by her family, wouldn’t apply to wildlife sanctuaries or zoos accredited by one of two national organizations. It be illegal after Oct. 1 to own a dangerous animal without having a U.S. Department of Agriculture license, and animal owners would have to carry $250,000 worth of liability insurance.

The definition of dangerous animal would include bears, lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, mountain lions or hybrids of those animals, and venomous snakes not native to Kansas.

The International Fund began pushing for tougher regulation of such animals in October 2004, when the state Department of Wildlife and Parks began considering imposing new regulations.