Keeping Of Pets…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

As I sit in my Kailyard I wonder often about the future.

I also wonder about the keeping of pets.

I have a cat. I grew up with a dog. When I was wee, I asked for a squirrel as a pet. I never got it and for at least a year resented everyone who promised me one.

Lions, tigers and bears, oh my, were animals on screen or in zoos. Or more importantly in the wild.

The popularity of the Netflix documentary of Tiger King which followed Joe Exotic was revelatory. The fact that British filmmaker, Louis Theroux had actually done a documentary – some might say it was far superior to the Netflix series – and I am one of them – didn’t register with us as a viewing public until much later. Theroux has revisited his original documentary to update the public in what happened next in the US for the people in the UK.

We had already had the pictures of that dentist who had gone out to Southern Africa and shot a big animal and had hated it as it hit Facebook and made them infamous.

The British public don’t like to see the animals that are supposed to be living in the wild, living anywhere apart from in the wild. Even zoos in the UK, though a popular attraction are constantly being debated. The image of the big gun and big game hunter with a crisp upper class British accent is a little old fashioned, though we do have to admit they exist. we like to think of ourselves as animal lovers.

Of course, the recent rise of plant-based eating, Veganuary in the UK and vegetarianism in general chimes with the need to reduce the amount of meat we should eat for environmental reasons.
In essence the world and its relationship to animals is changing.

Or at least in the UK it is.

In the US, it would appear that the likes of Joe Exotic are simply staying put.

In Houston apparently there was a pet tiger on the loose.

The fact that the owner, a murder suspect, who was out on bail at the time, had such an animal just added to the shock of the headline and proved that, for once, the headline was less click bait than playing down just how strange and bizarre this all was…

Allegedly this man had taken his pet tiger, put it in his SUV and driven off with it. To where?

To get its nails clipped.

Why would you stick a tiger in your car? Why would you own a tiger as a pet?

Apparently, he is back in custody and the last time I checked, the tiger was still on the loose and footage exists of it roaming suburban streets.

Not for the first time I am left shaking my head at people, but this is usually occasioned by the stupidity of them within a certain context. The context here is that owning such exotic animals appears to be at least acceptable if not common place. I can see why the likelihood of a Cheetah in the Bronx may be unlikely but the possibility of privately owning such an animal and keeping it, no matter how well intentioned in a domestic setting is beyond comprehension. I am left reeling at the thought.

It is not so long ago that in Las Vegas the camp magicians par excellence, Siegfried and Roy had Montecore a beautiful white tiger, “save” Roy by taking him in his mouth and drop him near to medics who could treat him for a stroke. I am somewhat dazed at that. This was 2003. Having a tiger on the prowl in Houston is 2021.

It has been argued that zoos are a bit 20th century. Privately owning the animals that should be in the wild, feels even more outdated and incongruous than that. I have no idea what shall turn the tide of public opinion towards the keeping of pets in the US but I can recommend the little cats thing and certainly the joy of having a dog instead. Squirrels are not in my experience but I still bear a grudge that I never got one as a kid…

A view from the new Kailyard or, how you look over there, from over here…

(kailyard n. a genre of sentimental Scottish literature turned into effective invective comment from one Donald worth reading…)

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