I have friends in South Africa with cheetahs, servals and caraculs as household pets. They need a lot of space and good socialisation plus you really need to keep an eye on them, but they become tame very easily. I am not in favour of keeping any wild animal as a pet, but, because these types of medium-sized cats become tame very quickly, they lose their edge and often cannot live in the wild after becoming used to humans. If you love animals it is all too easy to fall into the trap of wanting to be around wild ones like these who get used to humans so easily – to touch them, feed them, cuddle them, look after them, be close to them and get to know them. This often ends up with them living in your home before you know it.
Unfortunately you don’t even need a permit to keep a tiger as a pet in South Africa (because tigers are not indigenous to Africa) which causes huge problems when they grow to be too big to keep as a pet.
