Why it is a very bad idea to keep a lynx as a pet

and KILL the lynx, along with his friend, the cute squid? and throw out the majestic tomcat?!?

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It seems like people equate wild felines, like lynxes and bobcats, with domestic felines. I really donā€™t understand why. Yeah, lynxes and bobcats are of a similar size (at least compared to the big cats) and they are catsā€¦ but that is about where the similarities end. People donā€™t seem to equate domestic dogs with wolves or coyotes the same way. Is it because smaller wild cats like lynxes and bobcats are not depicted as eating/attacking people the way wolves and coyotes are? It bothers me.
We had a 1/4 wolf hybrid dog when I was a kid. One of our neighbors found out he was 1/4 wolf and freaked the fuck out. But I donā€™t imagine that kind of person freaking out as much over a lynx in our house.

Edit** About the wolf hybridā€¦ we were really lucky with him. Getting him was a terrible and ill-considered idea (not mine) and could have landed us with a terrible dog for a pet. Wolf hybrids, while beautiful, generally do not make for good pets. They tend to be shy and have issues with people other than their family and with obedience. More like the attitude a cat has to doing what you say rather than a dog. It usually takes an awful lot of work to socialize a wolf-hybrid, even a 1/4. Depending on the animal, they can be more dog-like (like ours) or more wolf-like. We were lucky. Ours was dog-like, easy to socialize, and generally did what we asked. It probably helped that his companion dog was a super awesome dog and taught the wolf-hybrid how to act. If our wolf-hybrid hadnā€™t been such an easy animal to get along with, we would have been in big trouble.

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Good news: That isnā€™t the way this particular story ends.

http://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/residents/small-cats/canadian-lynx/ramsey/

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I saw the movie Roar, by Noel Marshall (Melanie Griffithā€™s dad). Marshall subjects his entire family to getting mauled onscreen by various wild cats: lions, tigers, cougars and cheetahs.

Noel Marshall and Tippi Hendren ran a sanctuary for wild cats in California. Most of them rescued from private owners or poor zoos which mistreated them. The cats attacked somewhere between 70-100 of the film cast and crew, including Melanie. You can see onscreen the boneheadedness of treating wild cats as anything less than dangerous wild animals. Its a tough movie to sit through.So much facepalming and screaming at the screen, ā€œwhat the hell were you thinking?!?ā€

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Its more like the very sharp claws and opposable thumbs. You canā€™t really raccoon proof your home very easily.
The few people I know who have tried to domesticate raccoons, find that they are lethally territorial and will kill other pets in a house.

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And the curiosity and the stubbornness. When a raccoon finds something they want, they can be extremely single-minded and inventive about getting it.
At girl scout camp, we were given DIRE warnings about absolutely no food anywhere but in the proper food bins, which were locked inside a cabin. Some girl brought a bag that had some bubblelicious bubble gum, the kind that has a really strong scent, in it. The gum was confiscated before we even entered the car, but the bag still smelled like it. A raccoon managed to unzip her tent, drag a duffle 2 or 3 times its size out of the tent, and then, when an adult noticed and tried to scare him off, he just kept holding on to the bag. The adult ended up in a tug-of-war with the raccoon on one end and the adult on the other. The raccoon finally gave up when someone menaced him with a branch. They didnā€™t intend to hit him, just get him to run off.
personally, I thought they should have just let the raccoon have the bag. The kid was warned.

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Yep - re-install with BSD and Nginx so you never end up with gnuggets all over your apartment anymore.

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When it comes to wild animals, I follow the ā€œTimothy Treadwell Ruleā€.
Treat the animals with respect. Do not mess with them. Bad things are likely to happen to you when you ignore these rules.

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Exactly. Observe and admire from a distance. No touching ever. No feeding ever. And if there are babies, leave.

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Well, I donā€™t know about lynxes, but I do know that leopards make very nice pets once they grow up.

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Conversation with a barista at a coffee shop I frequented in the 1990ā€™s:

Me: Hey. You look tired.
Barista: Yeah. ā€œXā€ and I went camping, and we had a bit of trouble with the raccoons.
Me: You didnā€™t leave your food where they could get to it, did you?
Barista: We thought that instead of having to make coffee, it would be a good idea to bring chocolate covered espresso beans.
Me: Oh my gā€¦
Barista: Have you ever heard raccoons barking?

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Probably been declawed alsoā€¦

Iā€™m glad that the lynx was helped. The former owner still sounds like a dickwad.

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An ocicat is better than a savannah cat. Itā€™s just a regular cat, but with its spots you can pretend itā€™s a wild cat while still having one that acts like a domestic one.

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Good to know. I hold many specialties, animal husbandry is not among them.

Indeed, but if youā€™re starting with mail-ordering a lynx, a Savannah cat would be like methadone. Then you can taper down to an ocicat.

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Wtf is with all the cruelty to wild animals today? First they shoot a jaguar they brought out for the Olympic torch relay in Brazil and now this. Poor guy, heā€™s absolutely terrified. Proof why wild animals DO NOT BELONG IN HOUSES!

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Oh my god now Iā€™m even more pissed off! Heā€™s making money off this video and set up a company? But refuses to donate to the shelter that took his cat in? WHAT?! Seriously, that asshole needs to not be allowed near animals ever.

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This sort of thing is often said by those who assume that they or their loved ones will not be among the million.

And yes, someone who would try to keep a lynx as a housepet is a complete imbecile.

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Indeed, I have done, but for mostly opposite reasons. Facebook ā€œfriendsā€ often have no interaction between them. Making the connections between them empty, but easy. Anybody who prefers simulated friends is going to be unprepared for sharing physical space with a wild animal!

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