Lions, Tigers, Pigs.. Oh My!

“He ate a pillow and died but my parents realized how great having a pig is so they went to the farmers market petting zoo and bribed one of the workers with $200 to give us one of their piglets…And that's how we got Axl”. I nodded my head and stared off at the building behind my best friend’s blond hair. I had heard this story a million times. 

“-Before that, there was Ollie. They got him from some shady breeder in Illinois and he had his own IMDb page. He ate a pillow and died though”. I had grown up around Taylor’s animals. They were family to me. Waking up from a sleepover to one large brown pig on one side of me and 2 even larger pit bulls on the other. I had never thought it wasn’t normal. When her father had petitioned to the family that they should get peacocks, no-one bat an eyelash. The only question was how. 

Huffington Post explains “it’s estimated that millions of these wild animals are in private possession in the U.S.”. But we’re not talking large pigs with the occasional tusks. According to the National Geographic, “Today on the Internet you can find zebras and camels and cougars and capuchins for sale, their adorable faces staring out from your screen; the monkeys with their intelligent eyes; the big cats with their tawny coats.”. Imagine that, stroking the orange fur of a deadly tiger a few feet from your kitchen. Personally, I would be terrified. But thousands and thousands of mid-west and southern families find themselves surrounded by poisonous, rare snakes, and large exotic mammals that they can’t care for. National Geographic goes on to say, “Some people seek wild animals as pets as a way to reconnect with the natural world. They believe their exotics set them apart, the relationship made all the more intense by the unintended social isolation that is often the result of having an unpredictable beast as a companion”. I completely understand the desire to be a unique pet owner and to want that rare connection with a wild animal but wouldn’t the fear of death or being attacked overwhelm that feeling?

Taylor scarfs down the last of her burger while simultaneously pushing her long hair aside. “they root in dirt and graze all day so you have to have a big yard for them, his vet bills are higher than the dogs because we have to go to a specialty vet in the deep valley and he needs his hooves trimmed and his tusks shaved down. Plus we have to baby proof the kitchen cabinets because he knows how to open doors” she says. At the end of the day, wheres the line? Technically a pig is an exotic animal and this one has grown with me and in many ways grew into his intelligence with me. While some guy in Ohio is taking care of a lion. Should we carry the responsibility of these animals or leave them to nature. That is the question.