From 1990 to 2013 alone, Born Free USA has tracked over two-thousand incidents, including animal escapes, human injuries, and death of animals and owners which relate to wild animals held in captivity. Sixty-six percent of those incidents took place when owners had kept an exotic animal as a pet (“Exotic Pets”). Not only can they harm their owners, the animals often suffer from improper care. While there are owners who believe they properly care for their wildlife pets, wild animals are at their peak health and happiest when they are in their natural habitat. For this, and many other reasons, wild animals such as lions and tigers should not be kept as pets.
First of all, wild animals can pose a public safety risk. If an animal escapes, it can
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The pets are easy to obtain (“RSPCA Warns”), though, so why not get one? There are many great wild animals to chose from, and they can be great sources of entertainment. Although that statement is true, that doesn’t mean keeping an exotic animal captive is the right thing to do. When used for entertainment, wild animals often get wing clipping, defanging, and declawing, which are all very painful procedures (“Pets”). Those procedures are done to either prevent the animal from escaping and hurting others, but the procedures could be avoided if wild animals were kept in the wild like they’re supposed to be.
All-in-all, wild animals kept as pets can pose a public safety risk and can also hurt the animal itself. If humans don’t mess with these animals, they shouldn’t mess with us, and there would be one less thing to worry about. Wild animals are best to be kept in their wild habitat; that’s where they belong. There are many better pet options to choose from, such as dogs, cats, and more! Stick with a less-wild option of pet and be sure to give it absolute proper care as well as lots of interaction with other animals and nature. Wild animals don’t need to, and shouldn’t be kept as