Kentucky Family Fights To Keep Pet Lion

:wtf:

<snip>

MELVIN, Ky. --Amid a backdrop of colorful swingsets, clunky cars and giggling kids, a beast with a thick mane and daunting eyes paces in his cage. To some around this small Appalachian town, he's a frightening menace. To others, he's the local mascot, a novelty.

But to the Collins family, he's "Kitty," their beloved pet lion.

"That's my kid," said 22-year-old Melissa Collins, a married mother of three, as she pet Kitty through his 300-square-foot chain-link cage.

County officials may try to force the Collins family to find a new home for Kitty soon, though the family says it will fight the effort.

A county ordinance that would bar animals deemed "inherently dangerous" by the state is up for a vote Friday. If it passes, Kitty would no longer be allowed to stay in this rural neighborhood, where homes are within a few yards of each other.

Pauline Hall, who lives three houses down from the Collins family, said she lives in fear of the lion.

"I think it needs to be in a different environment," Hall said. "Everybody here keeps their guns loaded."

A Kentucky regulation that went into effect in July prohibits transporting animals labeled inherently dangerous by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, such as vipers, alligators, bears, tigers and lions.

But folks like Barry and Melissa Collins, who owned dangerous animals before the rule went into effect, are allowed to keep them, said Laura Patton, a state wildlife biologist. Bringing in more dangerous animals or breeding the ones they already have is still against the rules.

The state does not have a law that specifically deals with the ownership of exotic wildlife, she said.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/05/17/kentucky_family_fights_to_keep_pet_lion?mode=PF

That's sickening. I wouldn't even buy a fucking goldfish at a flea market.

Personally, I don't believe people should keep animals like that for pets. Leave them to the zoos and nature.

My bet is the new "owners" are the neighborhood bullies too.

means they probably shouldn't own any kind of animal. Personally, I like big, tough, scary-looking (but not acting) dogs, but I would never even contemplate owning a wild animal like that. My little kitties and my bearded dragons are wild enough for me.

bought.

Long story short-the a-hole who bought it at a flea market was feeding it from a car parked outside the weekly rental underneath the watertown (I can't believe we used to live there) and the lion ended up getting lose.

A kind in our neighborhood honest to God got chased down a path in the woods on his minibike.

Cops and animal control came out and tranquilized it but gave it too much and it died.

I can remember getting home from the grocery store and Mom running up to the front door and opening it and then my brother and I darting out of the Chevy Vega and running inside. Seriously that went on for about a week.

He just roamed around Illinois Blvs. In Hoffman Estates until the circus dudes caught him.

An acqauintence here in Houston grew up with 2 tigers his goofy dad owned and hand raised. A few years ago a pet tiger killed a little boy. Our pal is sure it was one of his (which had been long sold).

People are idiots.

i'm not going anywhere near that neighborhood.

I'm scared of rural areas but have no fear walking through NYC in the middle of the night. NYC keeps the lions in the zoo.

they shd take it to the state park & release. it needs room to roam...



seriously, this is hideously cruel. i hope it doesn't get injured when they transport it to a zoo.

Sorry folks, that's the way it is. Dogs and cats get along with us because they have been domesticated. Not so with wild animals.

I was talking to a zoo employee, and she told me a couple of stories. One was about two cheetahs that they had hand-raised from (kittens? whatever). They were very friendly to people. But when any little kid walked past their enclosure, they would IMMEDIATELY start "hunting them," crouching down and stalking.

And the other story was about a family who had a pet tiger, again hand-raised. A little boy reached into the pen to pet the tiger, and the tiger ate his arm. Wild carnivores are wild carnivores, and no amount of training will change that. The instincts run too deep.