A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/cute appearances, intelligence, and relatable personalities, but some pets may be taken in on an altruistic basis and accepted by the owner regardless of these characteristics.
Animal Miracles, also broadcast as Miracle Pets, is a one-hour, live action program that aired on the Pax TV network from 2001 to 2003, offering a perspective into the realm of human and animal interaction. Hosted by Alan Thicke, the series features animals protecting humans or other pets, one such being a llama guarding a herd of alpacas. It is also shown on Animal Planet. Each episode contains three or four segments, some extended beyond a commercial.
The Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre is a 65-acre (26.3 ha) ape and monkey sanctuary, rescue centre and primatarium near Wool, Dorset, England.
The Sierra Nevada Zoological Park, formerly the Sierra Safari Zoo, was a zoo north of Reno, Nevada, United States. Opening in 1989, it grew to become the zoo that housed more exotics in the state. The zoo housed a wide variety of exotic animals from around the world, including chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, big cats, reptiles, sloths, and others. The nonprofit zoo at times has received community support through in-kind donations such as meat from hunters to help support the animals in the zoo.
Southwick's Zoo, New England's Largest Zoo, is a privately owned and seasonally operated zoological park spanning 300 acres in Mendon, Massachusetts, United States. The zoo was established in 1963 and has been under the management of the Southwick and Brewer families since its inception. Established in 1963, the zoo is home to more than 850 animals from various regions of the world, offering visitors a chance to observe over 165 species of exotic animals.
Gertrude Ada Davies Lintz was an English-American dog breeder and socialite known for keeping exotic animals, including chimpanzees and gorillas, in her Brooklyn home. Her gorilla Buddy was sold to a circus and renamed Gargantua. Her gorilla Massa was sold to the Philadelphia Zoo, eventually becoming the longest-living documented gorilla. Her 1942 memoir Animals Are My Hobby inspired the 1997 American film Buddy. Lintz was played by Rene Russo in the film.
Southport Zoo was a 6-acre (2.4 ha) zoological garden in Southport, Merseyside, England run by Carol and Douglas Petrie. Historically within Lancashire, it was located close to the Pleasureland amusement park. It was home to 154 species of wild animals and birds, but closed in 2004.
The DeYoung Family Zoo is a zoo that opened to the public in 1990. It is open yearly from May until the end of October. It is located in Wallace, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Menominee. The zoo is owned by Bud DeYoung and Carrie Cramer. The facility has many exotic felines, and provides visitor interactions, as well as baby animals to pet and bottle feed.
Pet rental is the practice, usually administered by for-profit companies, of renting pets such as dogs and cats. Rental also includes animals who are hired out at a specific rate for a specific time. It is a controversial practice opposed by many animal rights advocates and has been banned in at least one municipality: Boston, Massachusetts.
Travis was a male chimpanzee who was raised by and lived with Sandra Herold in Stamford, Connecticut. On February 16, 2009, he attacked and mauled Herold's friend, Charla Nash, blinding her, severing several body parts, and lacerating her face, before he was shot and killed by responding Officer Frank Chiafari.
National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka is a zoological garden in Dehiwala, Sri Lanka, founded in 1936. It is home to various birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians. The zoo not only exhibits animals from Sri Lanka, but also from across Asia and other parts of the globe.
The Center for Great Apes is an animal sanctuary for great apes located east of Wauchula, Florida. Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1993, the sanctuary has about 70 orangutans and chimpanzees who were formerly used in entertainment, scientific research, or the exotic pet trade. The sanctuary sits on 100 acres of land in rural Florida, southwest of Orlando.
The Tiger Next Door is a feature-length 2009 documentary film directed and produced by Camilla Calamandrei.
An exotic pet is a pet which is relatively rare or unusual to keep, or is generally thought of as a wild species rather than as a domesticated pet. The definition varies by culture, location, and over time—as animals become firmly enough established in the world of animal fancy, they may no longer be considered exotic.
On August 5, 2013, an African rock python killed two boys in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada. The boys, brothers Noah and Connor Barthe, aged 4 and 6 respectively, were sleeping in an apartment above their friend's father's pet store. The python – which had been in a specially made enclosure in the apartment – had escaped, crawled through an air duct, and fallen through a ceiling tile above where the boys were sleeping. Following the incident, the python was euthanized. The python's owner was charged with criminal negligence for not preventing the deaths but was found not guilty in a jury trial in November 2016.
Tiger King is an American true crime documentary television series about the life of former zookeeper and convicted felon Joe Exotic. The first season was released on Netflix on March 20, 2020. A second season, Tiger King 2, was announced in September 2021 and was released on November 17, 2021, while a third season, Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story, was announced on December 3, 2021, and released one week later on December 12. The series focuses on the small but deeply interconnected society of big cat conservationists such as Carole Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue, and collectors such as Exotic, whom Baskin accuses of abusing and exploiting wild animals.
Carole Ann Baskin is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary. She has attracted the attention of local, national and international media outlets to the plight of captive big cats.
Sarah Nathalie Evans was an English businesswoman and conservationist with a particular interest in primates. In 1963 she co-founded the Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire. She began her career as a dog breeder and pet shop owner before merging her business with that of rival Molly Badham. The pair kept primates in their shared flat before moving, in 1954, to a larger house in Hints, Staffordshire where they established the Hints Zoological Gardens. Evans and Badham trained their chimpanzees to act out tea parties, which was noticed by the Brooke Bond tea company, who contracted the animals for a series of television advertisements for the PG Tips brand. After outgrowing Hints the pair moved their collection to Twycross, Leicestershire where they developed the largest primate collection outside of Japan. The Twycross Zoo became the first in the United Kingdom to breed colobus monkeys and bonobos and is now recognised as the World Primate Centre.
The Neuwied Zoo is a zoo located on the edge of the town of Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate. It borders the Rhine-Westerwald Nature Park. In 2007, the zoo had over 270,000 visitors.
