Makes E Wanna Holler!: Live With the Beast, Die By the Beast...

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  Last time I checked, I thought they belonged in the wild!  What happened to the days when people had a dog or maybe a fish in their repertoire of pets?  When people would watch Wild Kingdom and marvel at the strength and beauty of wild animals from the safety of their homes?  Although I usually indulge in the human side of relationships, I am compelled to discuss the psychology of exotic pet owners/lovers.  Lately I have become seduced by the show Fatal Attractions on Animal Planet.  If you have not seen the show, the entire premise is to introduce you to people who have deadly relationships with their exotic pets.  (I love the scared straight/horror movie feel they have going!  It screams, "GET A LIFE AND A NORMAL PET!)  So far I have seen these mentally touched pet owners fall prey to the animals they love (Bears, snakes, lizards, tigers, chimps...).  It is really sad and scary to think that people find such solace and enjoyment in animals that can rip them to shreds. 

There is this one episode that I will never forget.  One that is permanently embedded in the recesses of my mind.  My favorite, and personally the hardest to fathom, was the man who shared his small apartment with his cats and seven large and unruly Nile monitor lizards.  As much as he knew about these beasts, he isolated himself and allowed them to bite him numerous times.  These bites injected slow-working poison that weakened his nervous system making him powerless against their ultimate digestion of his flesh.  Yes, he was eaten by these creatures and left to rot sitting up on the side of his bed.  After I finally closed my mouth and collected myself, I thought...What's up with that?!

As a psychologist at heart, I often wonder what goes through the minds of these people.  Getting deeper into the show, I realized that they all have this intense desire to nurture and love something.  They also enjoy the closeness and transference of pseudo-power from these dangerous and "beautiful" creatures.  Every person on the show so far had personality issues that prevented them from integrating with other humans in a normal and healthy way.  It seems that the more I watch, the more I begin to see the apparent desire to be loved by something that cannot talk or hurt you emotionally. What I don't understand is how they get so comfortable with WILD beasts.  These animals are not used to being all up under humans!  Sometimes I scream at the television and wonder how they could be so utterly dense...

"What the hell are you thinking?!"  "They are gonna eat your face!"  "Why are you so close?!"  "They are not your friends!"  "There are children in the world that need love too!"  "Word?!  Just get a dog or something tamable!"

What causes such a mind-boggling connection between animal and human plagues me every time I watch this show.  Addiction is a phenomenon that I have a strong inclination to want to understand.  Before you watch the show and start screaming like I do, think about this...We all have something that we are attached to that may be dangerous and detrimental to our lives.  Some of us eat too much, indulge and imbibe, partake in dangerous sexual activities, try a drug every now and then or simply surround ourselves with negative and draining people or wild animals!  I guess what I'm trying to say is I am working on reducing my judging of these people even though I don't understand their behavior.  We should all try to step outside ourselves and at least attempt to acknowledge and investigate the issues of another before we are quick to throw stones.  HOWEVER I am a firm believer that if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.  So if you had to answer today, do you know what YOUR sword is?

To learn more about the show go to http://animal.discovery.com/tv/fatal-attractions/

By the way, I would love to hear from you guys.  How do you feel about exotic pet owners?  Do they have  a mental condition or are they misunderstood?