Our obsession with cute animals is turning us cruel – Yahoo

Did you know that it is perfectly legal in this country to keep a lion as a pet? Or, if you prefer, a dingo, a camel or a crocodile?

Strictly speaking, if you want the kind of pet that could bite your head off in one go, you’ll need a licence from the council. But there’s a booming market in smaller, cuter exotic animals that don’t require any paperwork.

Sloths, for example. They’re not really social animals, preferring to live alone in the tropical rainforests of South America – but who can resist that cute, slow-moving smile? Tamara Ecclestone hired one as entertainment for her daughter’s 10th birthday party in Kensington.

Or how about sugar gliders? Perfect for Instagram, with their huge, frightened eyes, and their apparent willingness to leap from the corner of a wardrobe towards the camera, for the slow-mo shot. Or best of all, the pygmy marmoset, so small that a baby could wrap itself around your finger like one of those magnetic monkey toys they sell at London Zoo.

The laws on exotic pets are surprisingly lax in the UK – partly because, until recently, there was no real need for them. When I was a child, it was only American magicians or Middle Eastern despots who kept wild animals as pets. Leopards on chains, usually.

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