 "Wild love: Why rich Pakistanis keep lions and other exotic animals as pets")
Forget dogs and cats, the elite in Pakistan are obsessed with keeping exotic animals as pets. From white lions to tigers, an array of wild animals are present in cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
However, this “love” for the exotic has landed the owners of a pet lion in trouble after the big cat escaped and attacked a woman and her three young children in Lahore recently. The police have now arrested the owners of the lion, accusing them of keeping a wild animal without a licence and negligence.
This is not a rare incident. Videos of Pakistanis taking their pet exotic animals on a drive have gone viral. A pet escaping and roaming residential streets is also not new.
But why do Pakistanis have exotic animals as pets? We will explain.
Rich Pakistanis’ craze for exotic animals
Wealthy Pakistanis love to flex their fortunes — not just through their cars and clothes but by keeping wild animals as pets.
Lions, tigers, cheetahs, deer, bears, wolves and even giraffes can be found in neighbourhoods in Pakistani cities.
“If one lives in Pakistan and wants to be famous, he must have a lion, which can earn him the top level of fame,” a wealthy entrepreneur in Karachi, on the condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph in 2019.
He claimed that the trend began in Lahore and later took over Pakistan’s commercial hub. “The wealthy people in Karachi took inspiration and today there are several farmhouses and big villas where one may find lions,” the owner said. “The lions have taken the place of other pet animals. I have seen a major surge and several people I know have purchased lions.”
Social media is rife with videos of rich Pakistanis cruising with lions in the front seats of luxury SUVs. In 2020, Karachi’s posh residential area called Defence grabbed eyeballs after videos of two giraffes living in the garden of a house surfaced.
A ‘pet’ leopard was seen at a residential area in Islamabad in 2023, jumping over walls and running around cars in panic.
Leopard attacked a pedestrian in DHA 2,
— Wahid Zia. (@OmniscientXo) February 16, 2023
luckily he didn't suffer any life threatening injury. Just couple of days back a leopard was sighted in Bahria Enclave Islamabad aswell, please stop occupying their lands. STOP DEFORESTATION. pic.twitter.com/kMC2OkyzCk
Bilal Mansoor Khawaja, a Karachi-based industrialist in his 30s, has a personal “zoo” featuring over 800 different species. He told AFP in 2019 that his collection of more than 4,000 animals was not about status or prestige but reflected his “love” for pets.
“We Pakistanis have a problem: where our heart is soft, it’s very soft. Where it’s hard, it’s very hard,” he said.
His nine-acre property, which is in the middle of a dense neighbourhood in the megacity, hosts zebras, flamingos, and horses, among other animals.
According to Khawaja, there could be 300 lions within Karachi itself, housed in gardens, rooftop cages, and farmhouses.
Big cats have historically been seen as a symbol of power and wealth in the South Asian country. Politicians in Pakistan are also notorious for using wild animals to flaunt their fortune. Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s party has even brought lions and tigers to its rallies as mascots.
A few politicians have also earned the title of Sher-e-Punjab – the lion of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Concerns in Pakistan over exotic animals as pets
Pakistan allows keeping lions, cheetahs , tigers, pumas and jaguars as pets after registering them and paying a one-time fee of PKR 50,000 (Rs 15,042) per animal.
Exotic animals are imported from countries like South Africa. Pakistan has lax laws for importing wild animals, but once they are inside the country, there are nearly no regulations.
The laws that protect local animals do not extend to imported species, according to The Express Tribune.
Animals such as African lions, pythons, and eagles can be easily found on Facebook. Some dealers operate on WhatsApp, showcasing animals available for sale, reported Sputnik India.
Speaking to AFP in 2019, exotic animal dealer Aleem Paracha said he could deliver a white lion to a client for PKR 1.4 million (Rs 421,168.5) in up to 48 hours.
Some breeders are “lion farming” and can provide the wild animal on short notice.
The trend has become a headache for wildlife conservationists, who allege that these animals are not being properly cared for by their owners.
Veterinarian Isma Gheewala told AFP that she has treated hundreds of big cats over the years suffering from calcium deficiencies. “The bones become extremely brittle. And even if they jump like a foot down, they will injure some bone or the other and then it takes a long time for the animals to recover,” she said.
In another worry, traders are also selling lion body parts. Lion fat is being used in medicine to relieve muscular and joint pain. Lion claws and nails are also up for purchase.
While Khawaja, who owns a private zoo, claimed he was not doing any harm by removing the exotic animals from their natural habitat, conservationists disagree.
World Wildlife Fund’s Uzma Khan told AFP: “An animal in captivity is not the way it is in the wild. What’s the point of having an animal which is not hunting, which is in a cage not showing its natural behaviour?”
Frenzy over exotic pets beyond Pakistan
Keeping exotic animals as pets is not limited to Pakistan. The trend seems to be growing in West Asia and Europe, with owners displaying their swanky lifestyle and their wild pets on social media.
In 2018, police in Paris had arrested a man driving a lion cub in his Lamborghini along the Champs-Élysées.
Emirati influencer Humaid Albuqaish regularly posts pictures and videos of his lions or tigers on Instagram and TikTok. He charges $200 (Rs 17,163) to visitors seeking to pet one of his wild animals, as per Semafor.
Cheetahs, tigers, lions, and other big cats have become the status symbol across the Gulf. Young men can feel like a nobody if they do not have an exotic pet.
Chris Draper, former head of animal welfare and captivity at Born Free, the international wildlife charity, told The Telegraph this phenomenon is fuelling a trade of trafficking that is threatening wild animals.
He said these animals are poorly cared for and abandoned, or worse, if their owners no longer care for them.
He said the majority “will have their roots in the wild, either directly, or perhaps one generation away. It’s a vast trade, it’s a cruel trade.”
Dr Draper said that keeping big cats as pets was “detrimental on every level”. “It needs to be ended and not be seen as the slightly comical thing that you might see on YouTube or Instagram of somebody with a pet lion at a birthday party,” he added.
Dr Draper warned that big cats can be aggressive and cause injuries, just because of their sheer size.
But while conservationists flag the issue of keeping the exotic as pets, will the uber-wealthy chasing social media likes and shares listen?
With inputs from agencies
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