Lions, Cheetahs, and Selfies: The Wealthy Men of Instagram Who Buy Exotic Animals

Animals are the new bling.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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While you're busy trying to get the next chick's attention with your lame Instagram selfies, a whole other crew of men have already one-upped you while you're busy choosing your filter.

Wild animals are the new bling of Instagram. User Humaidalbuqaish is one of a few users who stack their accounts with photos of them with lions, tigers, cheetahs, and all kinds of exotic animals we're not used to seeing as pets. Oh, and a Rolls Royce is just background material for him.

(No, I'm not kidding.)

The dude is obviously wealthy, and is seemingly in the midst of purchasing his own personal zoo (if he's actually buying them), and he's getting a ton of followers by showing his animals off—he already has 416,000 followers with a little over 300 posts

Sadly, he seems to be reckless with his animals as well:

 Then there's Swakll, with far less followers (213,000) but far more posts (2,260). 

And Jasem_ali_, with 187,000 followers.

Or Alfahaad314, who has a thing for cheetahs.

And primates are in the mix when it comes to Saadturkii.

As awesome as this might seem at first glance, many organizations highly recommend against owning exotic animals as pets. (Remember Zanesville?)

Outside of the reality that animals are often beaten into submission while learning to fear humans (likewise when it comes to learning tricks at circuses or zoos) or are drugged up with tranquilizers so they can't attack, their environments are often time inadequate for their care. From the HumaneSociety

In captivity, big cats suffer immensely from being confined to cages that are magnitudes smaller than the vast distances they typically roam in the wild. Allowing private possession of these animals poses unnecessary and preventable risks to public safety—and to the welfare of the animals themselves.

These men may very well provide optimum care for their animals. They might even care for them better than most zoos. There's not enough to go off of from 15-second video clips and selfies.

While it might be fun to see a small chimp in diapers, one day it will be much bigger and won't be in the cute cuddly state it's in now. Who knows? That chimp may very well even outlast Instagram. Hopefully they won't outlast their owner's ability to care for them. Status symbols usually lose their appeal when the new hot thing comes along.

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