When you think of a family pet, the image of a cat or a dog typically comes to mind. Even a pet hamster or bird is more realistic than not. However, we’re pretty sure the idea of raising a lion from birth and keeping it as a pet doesn’t come to mind. Well, one family living in Europe thought that raising a lioness would be a good idea. However, the lioness quickly decided to show the family who was the boss of this living situation.
20. Lions
Image: The Ladders
Lions are a large and incredibly powerful cat that is still considered a wild animal. Although many people are under the assumption that you can domesticate a lion, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. They are a strong animal that hunt their prey.
19. Attempted Domestication
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Despite knowing just how dangerous a lion can be, many people still make the sometimes fatal mistake of trying to domesticate one. Even if you raise a lion from birth, they are still a wild animal by nature. This means that their nature can be unpredictable.
18. Guard Down
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One of the scariest parts about claiming that a lion is domesticated is the fact that it will cause you to let your guard down. This can sometimes be a fatal mistake as one man would soon learn…
17. European Family
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However, one European family decided that they would question the norms and raise a lion for themselves. They got their hands on a tiny lioness cub when she was just a few weeks old. The couple then began to raise the little lioness.
16. Lioness
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The family lives in the Czech Republic and have been raising the lioness from a young age. They bottle-fed her and would keep her inside of the house while she was still very young. However, she has now grown to huge proportions!
15. Getting Bigger
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When she was still only a cub, the family was able to make due with her being inside of the house. However, now that she has grown into a full grown lioness she needs far more room to play around. Still, the couple has found ways to be more than accommodating to the situation.
14. Outdoor Space
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The couple has now provided their pet lioness with some outdoor space where she can roam around and do as she pleases. The scariest part, however, is that the couple actually engages in playful activities with her. They’ll run around with her and playfully jab with each other!
13. Huge Cat
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The lioness has now grown to be approximately 278 pounds! That’s an enormous lioness that the family has roaming around their yard and home freely. However, the couple states that they never feel any danger with their pet lioness around.
12. Documentary
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It seems that word had gotten out about the couple and their odd living arrangements. Soon news reporters and local stations wanted to get more information on how one “domesticates” a lioness. Eventually, talks of a documentary started.
11. Footage
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Soon enough, the couple agreed to a documentary shoot about their lives and their lioness. They were excited to show the world how they lived peacefully with their huge lioness. However, things didn’t quite turn out the way they expected.
10. Documentary Filmmaker
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So the documentary was set up and the filmmaker headed over to the couple’s home. Everything was going as planned, until suddenly, the lioness decided that she wasn’t too fond of having an unexpected guest. Things began to quickly take a turn for the worst.
9. Heading In
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The filmmaker headed into the house with the couple. The lioness was already inside the house and apparently she wasn’t too fond of the filmmaker. She decided that she would then lunge onto the filmmaker!
8. An Attack
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The cameras all caught the moment when the lioness decided that she didn’t want a visitor in her house. She lunged onto the filmmaker and began to claw at him. The couple then began to immediately pull her off of him…it was a scary sight…
7. Getting Away
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The couple continued to pull the lioness off the man. The husband was able to hold her back while the wife helped the man to get out of the lion’s clutches. He looked absolutely terrified and stunned by what had just happened.
6. Ripped Shirt
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The man’s white button-down shirt was completely ripped from the back. He had been scratched up by the lion and was bleeding. However, he was still pretty lucky to even be alive.
5. Lucky
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The man is incredibly lucky to still be alive. If the lion had managed to attack him anywhere else, like the throat for instance, he might not have been quite as lucky. For now, he just bares the scars on his back and his chest area.
4. Controversial
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The footage of the lioness attacking the filmmaker was promptly released. It soon became quite viral as everyone was shocked that anyone would keep a lion as a pet. People were soon expressing their opinions on the Internet and it wasn’t all pretty!
3. Opinions
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“Everything about this is wrong the lion should have been in the wild where it belongs not cooped up in a house like a cat or dog,” one user wrote. “Totally animal abuse. They should have big fines for anyone doing this. Wild animals must live in the wild,”another user stated.
2. Negative Response
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Overall, the story received quite a negative response from the public. Most people agreed that keeping a lion inside of the house as a pet isn’t real wise. The attack that happened to the filmmaker was just an accident waiting to happen.
1. Lucky Escape
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It was quite lucky that the filmmaker was able to crawl away an escape from the lion. It seems that although the idea of keeping a lion as a pet is cool, it isn’t very practical. In fact, it almost cost this filmmaker his life!