What do you think about legally owning a exotic pet?

I would love to own one!!

If it’s legal and the person does their research and knows what they’re doing, I think it’s awesome. Cool animals are… well… cool.

Most exotics are extremely difficult to keep outside of their own environment, at least with any sort of quality of life. Therefore most are better off sticking with the usual domestic animals for pets.

Actually judging by the number of cases of animal abuse and neglect, a lot of people probably shouldn’t even have domestic animals

haha as long as you can take care of it and it doesnt pose too much of a danger to you or anyone who is in constent contact with the animal i think that’d be rad

@MacBean When I lived in St.Petersburg, Russia, there was a pet shop where you could buy baby crocodiles. Not sure how you would walk a crocodile. Maybe something like this.

I always wonder about taking a wild animal (exotic pet) away from its kind, isolated with the human species. Does it sound fun for the animal?

in response to @skfinkel
would you like to be taken from your family and put with another species (you name the species it really doesn’t matter here)
but you get my point right?

i would like a white tiger
once i’m rich!

I’ve got a kid, that’s enough work for me.

I don’t think that I’d ever own an exotic pet because I wouldn’t be able to devote all the time and attention and care to it that it would rightly deserve and need. If someone else couldn’t do this same thing, I’d say they shouldn’t be owning an exotic pet either. In fact, to be brutally honest and take it one step further, exotic animals shouldn’t be pets at all and should never be removed from their native habitats.

I used to take care of what some would term “wild” animals and others “exotics.” I spent a lot of time and energy keeping them healthy and sane and did a pretty good job in that our animals all stayed healthy and attractive, and some even adjusted to being around humans.

However, it was a huge amount of work. Now that I am retired I stick with the standard dogs and cats. It is so much easier to care for them properly, and it is much, much easier to find a vet that actually knows how to treat them. We do have one vet in town that used to work with small exotic animals in a zoo (mostly lemurs) and another that used to take care of crocodilians in a zoo, but most local vets stick to cats, dogs, cows and horses.

BTW, I would never walk a crocodile or even an alligator on a leash. They never seem to develop any bond with people and would bite you just because they could.

If you have the space, time, and money to care for it properly then by all means go ahead. Otherwise it would be cruel to the animal in question and irresponsible.