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.
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.
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.
Latvia has comprehensive animal welfare legislation. The cornerstone is the Animal Protection Law, originally adopted in 1999 and most recently amended in March 2024. This law outlines the ethical obligation to ensure the welfare and protection of all animals, prohibiting unnecessary harm, pain, or killing without substantiated reason.
I guess the law is weakly enforced which is a very common problem worldwide. Or the authorities see no problems in this instance. They are wrong.
How is ownership of such wild animals allowed in Latvia? It makes no sense. Sure the abuse might not be physical but it surely seems to be psychological. Isnt there a single organisation in Latvia to report this dude? He’s also exploiting the animal for views and money, isnt that a form of abuse ? Isnt’ that remotely illegal?
I completely agree. Thanks for contributing.
to add onto this caracals are not cats. they are wild animals. they have not been domesticated in the slightest and keeping them as “pets” is very much dangerous to not only the animal but the human as well. from many clips i’ve seen pumba also shows many signs of disliking their owner in a way even a tame wild animal at a zoo wouldn’t. even if it weren’t that they were keeping a literal big cat in their house even a domestic cat constantly bearing their teeth and growling at their owner would be concerning.
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.