Meet Pumba, the fat, pet caracal of Latvia who wants to escape

The Metro.co.uk website headline is “Meet the loving domesticated wild cat who ‘hates being alone'”. As soon as you see the pictures of this beloved caracal you can see that he is obese. This is not right. Note: this article is in 2 parts with a link to the second part at the base of this section.

Obese Pumba pet caracal of Latvia
Obese Pumba pet caracal of Latvia. Instagram screenshot.

As expected, it is legal to own a caracal in Latvia. I’d expect fairly lax laws on exotic animal ownership in the Baltic states and Russia. The caracal is a medium-sized wild cat species. They are highly athletic. The kind of space that the male caracal requires in the wild is 220 square kilometres! And owners of these cats expect them to be happy living in a home or an enclosure of 25 square meters. The caracal inherits a desire to roam over large areas.

RELATED: Infographic on caracal description

Pumba lives with Deniss Jegorovs. Apparently, he hates being alone and joins Deniss to watch television. He screams when he is lonely. I bet that it is an intimidating sound. Denis feeds him three times a day. Right, great. He’s feeding too much or giving him treats in between feeds. And he’s not getting anywhere near enough exercise.

Obese Pumba pet caracal of Latvia
Obese Pumba pet caracal of Latvia. Photo: Instagram.

Deniss admits that Pumba wakes him in the morning and begs for food. He is terminally bored that’s why he begs for food. There’s your problem. He lives outside the home from mid-fall to mid-spring.

13 thoughts on “Meet Pumba, the fat, pet caracal of Latvia who wants to escape”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. This whole account is creepy.. they show the caracal attacking the owner hissing with ears back and just stopping the attack at the last second as if he was scared – and they title it like “happy pumba says hello”. Obviously he’s not happy so I don’t know if the owner is lacking something in his brain and believes in what he writes or he knows exactly that pumba is not happy but he just posts these titles for views. What is also creepy is that they don’t talk to the cat at all, they just creep towards him with the camera not saying a word to interact, that’s another red flag. They also always ignore all the negative comments which are majority on their account. I’m almost certain they hurt him because that’s not normal that he attacks the owner and just crawles out the last second with his ears back. So sad that nobody investigates on that and all platforms just ignore the abuse reports on this account..

    Reply
    • I am pleased that you agree with me Paola and thanks for commenting. I firmly believe they know their caracal is pissed off and bored but they exploit their cat mercilessly for social media success. And a fawning set of followers say nice things. It is all mad and bad as far as I am concerned.

      Reply
  3. The owner purposely aggravates Pumba to make him hiss and growl. I report him to FB every time I see him in my feed, but I guess “constant teasing” doesn’t count as animal abuse according to FB, since the abuse is only psychological, and not physical. In another interview the owner says, “‘Pumba is a very kind animal when you are not annoying him.” That guy should not own this animal, but Latvian law allows it. I hope one day soon Pumba lives in a sanctuary with appropriate outdoor access, where he can live without being constantly teased, and be a healthy weight.

    Reply
    • Well said, Lemony. I dislike this sort of relationship between human and wild cat. It is horrible as far as I am concerned. The caracal is very athletic and a great hunter. There is only one place for them: the wild. And to be left alone by humans who are a disease across the planet.

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      • I fully agree. What this Latvian is doing amounts to animal abuse. Personally I hope he forgets to have the cat’s claws trimmed so one day Pumba gets a good latch on Deniss and inflicts serious injury. Poetic justice for yrars of tormenting this beautiful wild creature.

        Reply
    • That cat will be the end of him I look forward to the day when that happens because he’s too ignorant to see the truth for what it really is, you can’t take the wild out of an animal no matter how hard you try there’s a reason why people who run zoos don’t turn their backs on this cat because it’s a wild predator that goes for the throat or the back of the neck to kill its prey and good luck getting away from it because they can jump as high as 10 feet the equivalent of a tennis court fence ????‍♀️

      Reply
    • Hi Mario. Thanks for commenting. You should not be a fan of this poor cat confined to a prison and turned into a comical, fat dunce when he should be an elegant and superb wild hunter.

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      • I agree. I have never seen this cat purring or in any way shape or form in a “good mood”. In fact I just saw a video where the cat peed all over the dudes shows.

        For the life of me I have no idea how the owners do not know that there is a huge problem here and at some point that cat is going to snap.

        Reply
      • Plus they expose this two house cats to this animal who they say often begs for food. It’s just a matter of time before one of those two cats gets eaten. I am extremely concerned about the well being of the two cats who deserve protection as well. I like nothing about this situation. This Caracas was likely taken from its late ther and natural habitat or bred to be pets. This is wrong on so many levels. Even if this caracal was a rescue animal (which I highly doubt) , it still deserves a sanctuary rather than a house. There are so many domesticated animals that do make
        Great
        Pets Ie dogs and cats in shelters. Buying a caracal
        To have as a pet and more likely to garnish instagram clout and fame is selfish and narcissistic. You aren’t keeping the well
        Being of this caracal a priority.

        Also I hate when wild animals are given cutesy names to make it seem a bit more socially acceptable. It is an insult to this animals beauty and strength to call it a human made name.
        I reported it also to YouTube and it does bother me how little you tube cares

        Reply
        • Sorry I meant to correct my autocorrect and spelling errors but it was accidentally posted before I could and I don’t know how to edit it once posted.

          Reply

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