Eli5: Why can’t you make a pet out of a wolf, a bear or a lion?
In: Biology
You can, and people do, it’s just a terrible idea.
Those animals aren’t domesticated, so it isn’t like bringing a domesticated cat or dog into your house, which have been bred over a long time to live side by side with people. At most, those animals can be tame, which isn’t the same as domesticated. People also have different tame animals like squirrels and foxes, but the difference is that if a tame squirrel or a fox stops being so tame, it can only do so much damage to a human being of toddler size or greater. A wolf, bear, or lion can eat an adult right up.
Watch the documentary Tiger King to see what less-than-professional treatment of tame tigers bred in captivity can do if they don’t like what’s going on. A lot of fatal bear attacks on humans are also from tame bears kept as pets or for circuses. I know wolves and wolf hybrids kept as dogs pose problems as well.
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