Not In The Wild Whether it’s a dog, cat, rabbit, or turtle, people all over the world own pets. People love having a dog to play and go for walks with; however, some aren’t satisfied with an already domesticated animal, they want to take pet ownership to a new extreme: owning exotic animals. Lions, tigers, and bears, are all becoming a common occurrence in people’s homes. While it may be cool to own a lion, large cats are dangerous and hard to take care of. Owning exotic animals should be made completely illegal because it is dangerous,unethical, and damaging to those species. Exotic animals that have been bred in captivity or taken from the wild, may have been tamed, but exotic animals, regardless, have been known to attack people or carry disease, making them dangerous to be around. Exotic animals, even those raised by humans, have attacked, injured and killed people (Malmberg). An animal that was biologically meant to be in in the wild still instinctively wants to hunt and stalk prey. Although an …show more content…
Once an exotic animal is captured and brought into captivity, it can be hard to transition that animal from wild to domestic and back to wild life style again making the animal to not be able to return to the wild. With exotic animals that are raised in captivity and treated as pets, there is no possibility of them being able to survive in the wild, because they were never taught the skills necessary for survival. Also, when wild animals are kept in captivity, there is a risk of them escaping, this not only endangers the animals, but people also. In Zanesville Ohio, Terry Thompson,owner of 56 exotic animals, released fifty of them, then took his own life. Police then shot and killed over 46 of these animals, which were deemed a threat to the public, this also included rare Bengal Tigers (Caron). The Zanesville Ohio incident gives insight into how owning exotic animals is harmful to