First UK family to have a serval as a pet

I believe that this is unique in the UK: a serval as a pet. The family lives in Oldham in Greater Manchester. There are two young children, Sienna and Brandon, one of whom is shown in the photo below.

Serval as a pet in the UK
Sienna Jones, four, towers over Anubis now but the serval will eventually weigh up to 50lb
LAURA DALE/CATERS NEWS AGENCY
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

The serval’s name is Anubis. He was 11 weeks old in May when he was adopted.

They have built an outdoor enclosure for their serval and have CCTV to monitor him. The picture shows a small backyard. I hope that this is not the so called enclosure because it is inadequate.

I also hope the cat is not declawed. They frequently are because they are strong cats with large claws.

RELATED: Servals as pets.

Many servals are abandoned by their owners because they prove to be unacceptable as pets for various reasons one of which is that they spray urine. After all this is a medium sized wild cat from Africa.

They can be tamed or domesticated to a certain extent. But they can be a bit scary. My personal view is that they are not suitable as pets. They are too wild and too large. They need a massive amount of stimulation in order to be satisfied.

The family will have applied for and received a license under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 as I understand it. You need a license in the UK for this sort of animal.

Source: Times

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4 thoughts on “First UK family to have a serval as a pet”

  1. I’m so sorry to see that the Brits have joined the American idiots in their desire to own exotic cats. No diplomacy about it!

    “Florida issues almost 4000 exotic ownership permits each year and has to employ 18 inspectors at a cost to tax payers of 1.5 million dollars per year, just to allow people to keep, breed and sell exotic pets. Permits cost between 50. and 250. This falls 1,250,000.00 short of enough to cover the cost of administration. What can a County in Florida do to ban exotic pet ownership when FWCC says they have supreme authority and no intention of banning this inhumane practice? Click here to see what the Attorney General has to say.

    That 98% of all exotic animals die within the first two years of being brought home as pets.”

    -Big Cat Rescue.com

    Reply

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