The 15 Most Extreme Celebrity Pets

For the same reason freshly minted supermodels keep dating Leonardo DiCaprio, everyone has wished at some point that they could own an exotic pet, even though it’s guaranteed to end badly. Like, have you ever seen a baby leopard? They’re the cutest things you’ll ever see, and that includes your own children. They even meow like domestic kittens, except better. Unfortunately, they will grow up and eat your face, which is why the law doesn’t let you bring them home and snuggle them forever.
Like all laws, though, they don’t count if you’re famous. The rich and notorious throughout history have not only been allowed to play God over a variety of dangerous wild animals, they’ve thought nothing of flaunting it, whether they’re presenting their zoo pal as an honored dinner guest or walking them through the city streets on a leash that’s more of an empty gesture than a precaution. Your common ass could never.
Mike Tyson’s Tigers

Tippi Hedren’s Lions

Universal Pictures, Eric Isselee/Shutterstock
Pope Leo X's Elephant

Nero's Tiger

Napoleon’s Orangutan

Jacques-Louis David/Wiki Commons, Anoine-Jean Gros/Wiki Commons, yebemoto/Shutterstock
Anton LaVey’s Leopard

Thomas Jefferson's Bears

Rembrandt Peale/Wiki Commons, Volodymyr Burdiak/Shutterstock
Pablo Escobar's Hippos

Colombian National Police/Wiki Commons, Guillermo Ossa/Shutterstock
Elvis Presley’s Kangaroo

Salvador Dalí's Ocelot

Nicolas Cage’s Cobras

Lord Byron's Bear

Tycho Brahe’s Moose

Josephine Baker’s Cheetah

Lucien Waléry/Wiki Commons, Louis Gadin/Wiki Commons, Eric Isselee/Shutterstock
John Quincy Adams

George Peter Alexander Healy/Wiki Commons, Independent birds/Shutterstock