Pet deer attacks man! Pet wolf mauls child! Hand-raised tiger savages owner! Whenever one of these headlines flashes by my radar, I can’t help thinking, “Why would anyone want a wild animal as a pet?”
Why are wild animals dangerous to keep as pets? For one, they are not behaviorally adapted to living with humans. See what a 40 year study involving undomesticated commercial farm foxes reveals about domestication. In this study, researchers selected only for tameness and over many generations they got a population of foxes that was not only friendlier to humans and easier to tame; they were behaviorally and physiologically more like fox puppies. Find out more in the Huffington Post.