What do you think of the idea of keeping exotic pets. I'm talking more specifically things like Tigers and Lions, one of which the tiger that is extremely endangered.

You used to be able to buy tigers in Harrods

Shopping list:

pound of bananas
milk
eggs
tiger

do you want one?

How would someone go about buying a tiger?

When I worked as a service engineer in the early 1980's I visited a flat in central London.

The young woman living there had a variety of exotic pets including dozens of snakes & lizards and several tanks containing huge tropical fish - including one very murky tank with a massive piranha fish in it. It was like a bloody pet shop. She gave me a quick tour when I showed a bit of interest.

Before leaving I asked to use the toilet and she pointed me in the direction of the bathroom. On entering there was a violent splash from the bath which stopped me in my tracks. I peered into the bath from the doorway and saw a 3ft alligator!!

I decided to leave using the toilet until I got down the road.

I don't think it's a good idea to keep Lion's and Tiger's as pets - they get very big and might eat you

The one in Bringing Up Baby was cute. I don't think I'd like to have one as a pet though. I'm scared enough of big dogs.

Probably too much cash to carry around at one time, so cheque or credit card, usually. Also you'd want to go to Harrod's in a van or at least a large station wagon because the gates in the Tube at Kensington HS would be too narrow for a tiger to get through, unless you go it delivered of course.

Seriously they are far too beautiful and majestic to consider making them into pets. We have done a lot of harm to animals we have domesticated so leave these wild creatures to live their lives away from humans.

That was a Leopard not a Tiger.

It was cute though. Well, Baby was. The escaped Circus one they mistook for Baby on the other hand


*****

As for keeping them as pets - a with any animal if you can meet their physical, social and mental needs (both of the individual and as a species) then fair enough. Thus if you are the Maquis of Bath and own Longleat, you can own any darn land animal or bird and most aquatics it is legal to own.

Most us probably need to stick to something that doesn't need a license, doesn't cost a fortune to keep and doesn't need to be part of an international breeding program.

Couldn't anyone keep them up until the early 70's ?

No there wild animals

Yes, the Dangerous Wild Animals (DWA) Act came in in 1976 which considered the endangered status, the animal's welfare and public safety when considering if someone would be granted a DWA licence which was required to keep proscribed species.
Knowledge, environment, managment, space, suitability, safety and insurance etc were all taken into consideration.
Some council impliment/interpret the requirements much more strictly than others i.e when squirrel monkeys were on the schedule some councils considered suitably safe conditions for a small monkey in terms of bars, cages, security doors etc to be different to those required to safely keep a grown tiger, others considered them to be the same.
Before the DWA Act anyone could legally keep any animal they wanted, and it was the unsuitability of keeping pet lions etc in small flats that promoted the Act being drawn up. As they breed easily in captivity, at that time lion cubs were being sold for as little as £200
C.I.T.I.E.S regulations also now control trade in endangered species, though in many cases it is habitat loss that results in endangered status so leaving the animals where they are in the wild is not always the best policy for survival of those species.
Some exceptional people however do go to considerable effort and expense as private keepers to provide a suitable knowledgable home for their exotic pets and many common pets these days e.g chipmunks, chincillas, gerbils , hamsters etc were once exotic wild animals.