We all love our pets. But celebrities are notorious for making shocking choices when
it comes to their furry — or scaly — companions. Whether these stars
weren't ready for a forever-friend, or they were forced to return an illegal animal,
here are the controversial pets celebs gave up.
Back when Beyoncé's cousin was living with the Knowles family, they shared a pet python named
Fendi. The two girls adored the snake and even let it sleep in their bed sometimes.
But Beyoncé's dad, Mathew, wasn't exactly a fan. Beyonce revealed to "Rove Live" in 2002,
"My dad, he's a big guy and you know, he's really serious, and he was terrified of the snake."
After Fendi got loose one day in the house — and they found
the snake dangling in one of their closets — Mathew demanded that the girls get rid of it.
But perhaps Beyoncé never fully got over losing Fendi, considering she still seems
to enjoy palling around with snakes; like the time she posed with a snake for InStyle,
and when she featured one in the music video for "Don't Jealous Me" from "Black is King."
"There is a celebrity sitting in our audience."
Michael Jackson's famous pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, was a longtime companion of the pop star,
after Jackson bought him from a research facility in the early '80s. Bubbles was
treated like Jackson's child, sleeping in a crib in his bedroom and eating at the table. Bubbles
was also an impressive entertainer, often making appearances with Jackson, and even performing his
own version of the moonwalk on “Live! Dick Clark presents”… in an adorable pair of pink overalls.
But in 2003, there was growing concern around Bubbles' aggressive behavior. And Jackson then
chose to relocate him to an animal sanctuary. Bubbles eventually made his way to the Center for
Great Apes in Florida, where he enjoys painting alongside other retired entertainment industry
apes. In 2021, he appeared on the sanctuary's Instagram in a post for his 38th birthday.
Actor Cheryl Hines found herself living with a baby emu named Toby, after her husband, Robert
F. Kennedy, Jr., gifted it to his daughter. The cute pet, however, soon grew to be six feet tall
and then terrorized their household. On "The Late Late Show with James Corden,"
Hines explained that her dog would sometimes open the door and let the emu inside the
house. But even when it stayed outside, the emu would chase Hines and guests around the yard.
"It's fun to watch him chase other people around the yard,
but if you're the one being chased, it's not hilarious."
Understandably, the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star wasn't too enthusiastic about being
harassed by a giant bird every time she stepped out of her home. In fact,
she even confessed to repeatedly googling just how long emus live — which can be up to 30 years.
As another, possibly better gift, Cheryl's hubby Robert finally relocated the bird to an emu farm.
Hines is happier without it and we're guessing the emu is much happier too.
The Karadashian-Jenners are notorious for going through pets like they go through handbags.
The serial pet owners have enjoyed the brief company of monkeys, horses, mini pigs, and
everything in between. But perhaps the strangest of the bunch was Khloe Kardashian's pet peacock.
She rescued the wild peacock in 2012 when her neighbors were allegedly going to call animal
control to have it removed from the property. Fearing the peacock would be killed, Kardashian
took it in as a pet and named it Peter Pan. But just two years later, Kardashian had sold the
house to actor Kaley Cuoco and her then-husband, Ryan Sweeting — leaving Peter Pan behind.
Explaining the situation to David Letterman, Cuoco didn't name Kardashian,
but said the previous owner informed her that the house came with a peacock,
and that the peacock was an indoor-outdoor type of bird.
Unfortunately, Cuoco and Sweeting didn't last, and they sold the home in 2020. While Peter's current
whereabouts are unclear, we hope the new owners were as understanding as Cuoco and Sweeting!
"Hey, I got a tiger…especially, it's L.A. too, y'know?"
When rapper Tyga purchased his pet tiger in 2014, apparently he wasn't aware it was illegal to own
the exotic animal in California. But after posting snaps of his new pet to Instagram,
he quickly realized his mistake. By the time wildlife agents arrived,
he had already taken the 7 month old tiger to an animal shelter.
Tyga's little cub was then relocated to the Lions, Tigers and Bears sanctuary,
where he was named Maverick. The sanctuary's website noted of Maverick's journey,
"[It's a] perfect example of what happens when people decide they want a wild animal
for a pet. […] Wild instincts begin to emerge, they become hard to handle
and pose an extreme risk to the community, leaving the animal to face an uncertain future."
Tragically, Maverick was killed by another tiger in
an accident at the sanctuary in October of 2020.
Lena Dunham gave up her dog of four years, Lamby, after claiming she was struggling with
the dog's aggressive behavior. In a post on Instagram, the "Girls" star explained,
"Lamby suffered terrible abuse as a pup that made having him in a typical home
environment dangerous to him and others — we needed to be responsible to ourselves,
our neighbors and especially our beloved boy."
She then revealed that she had sent the dog to a professional facility that specializes in
behavioral issues. That facility then reportedly re-homed Lamby. But the animal shelter she adopted
Lamby from, disputed her claims about prior abuse and criticized her breach of contract with them by
re-homing the dog without their consent. Dunham fired back in another Instagram post, writing,
"While I'm sorry to have disappointed [the shelter], I can't apologize. […] I have
weathered a lot of micro-scandals but this one hurts MOST. I know I'm a lot of fun to
place your issues on, but I won't let anyone hang their hat on this peg. Not this time."
Elvis Presley housed an impressive number of animals at Graceland, his home in Memphis,
Tennessee. Not only did he have a variety of farm animals, but he kept a few exotic
creatures as well. According to the official Graceland blog, The King's menagerie featured
a chimp named Scatter and as well as a mynah bird that was apparently smart enough to, quote,
"repeat the excuses it heard about why Elvis couldn't come to the phone."
Knowing his love of unusual animals, Aussie fans gifted wallabies to Presley on a few occasions.
He even brought one of them onto the set of "Jailhouse Rock" in 1957. But
the King of Rock n' Roll eventually donated the wallabies to the Memphis Zoo by the early '60s.
The crooner also owned peacocks at one point,
which are commemorated in the stained glass in Graceland's Music Room,
as well as on one of The King's famous jumpsuits. But Graceland archivist Angie Marchese says that
the birds soon joined the wallabies at the Memphis Zoo, telling the Express that it was because:
"They started seeing their reflection in the gold Cadillac
and started pecking the paint off the car."
Mike Tyson owned a couple of bengal tigers early in his career.
But he kept his favorite — a white bengal named Kenya — for about 16 years.
Tyson told the story of how he acquired the large cats, explaining to Joe Rogan
that while he was in prison, he bought them over the phone through his car dealer — who
traded cars for exotic animals. When he got out, the cubs were waiting for him at home.
"Can you imagine me in an F50 Ferrari, the top down,
and you got a tiger and lion driving with you?"
But the heavyweight champ told GQ Sports that
he ultimately donated Kenya to a sanctuary, explaining,
"She got too old and I had to get rid of her.
Her eyes and her hip got bad. Plus, she ripped somebody's arm off."
The tiger did in fact attack a woman who had trespassed onto Tyson's property.
He told Fat Joe's podcast,
"It was a bad accident. When I saw what the tiger did to her hand — I had a lot of money
back then — so I gave her $250,000. […] You can't believe what they can do to a person's flesh."
The whole incident was a wake up call for Tyson, who said he didn't know back
then how dangerous it is for wild animals to be forced into a domestic situation.
In the early 2000s, P!nk was the bad girl of the millennium pop divas. And
she was certainly staying on brand when she named her dog "Fucker." She seemed
to enjoy attracting attention with the dog, like when she took him to the MTV
Movie Awards and bragged about shocking red carpet host Beyoncé with the name.
Another time, P!nk lost the dog at a restaurant and she wouldn't stop yelling the expletive in
the vicinity of other diners, including some kids. A few years later, she gave the dog to her dad,
who renamed him Fred. After the re-homing, Pink told Cosmo in 2009,
"He is a much happier dog now. He still responds to both names but he's much happier."
"My snakeskin jacket!"
"Did I ever tell you that this here jacket represents a symbol of my
individuality and my belief in personal freedom?"
Nicolas Cage is known for being a little eccentric, so it's no surprise he has
owned several strange pets, including a baby octopus and two king cobras;
Moby and Shiva. He even claimed the snakes tried to hypnotize him, telling David Letterman,
"I have them behind two computer-locked doors behind bullet-proof glass
and I like to go in there in my red leather chair, you know, with a glass of wine and
watch them. […] Sometimes Moby will sort of do this little charming snake dance."
After the Letterman appearance, Cage's neighborhood council expressed
a bit of concern over the cobras, and he eventually donated them to a zoo. Still,
the deadly serpents had a lasting influence on him. Cage explained that he used their
reptilian hypnotic powers as inspiration for his character in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance."
In 2013, Justin Bieber was gifted a baby capuchin monkey and named him OG Mally. The monkey was
only 9 weeks old when he was given to Bieber, and too young to be separated from his mother.
To make matters worse, Bieber soon took the monkey on tour. All was going fine until OG
Mally was taken into custody at the Munich, Germany airport, due to insufficient paperwork.
The Guardian reported that the baby monkey was placed in the care of a local animal shelter,
with officials noting the overall lack of responsibility coming from Bieber and his reps.
German authorities gave Bieber a chance to provide the proper paperwork and retrieve his pet,
but he never did. While he didn't exactly give his monkey away, Bieber definitely left him
stranded at the shelter. According to CNN, OG Mally then eventually became "property of the
German government." The outlet reported in June of 2013 that the monkey was relocated to a German zoo
with other capuchin monkeys who are likely better companions than a pop star and his entourage.
Another celebrity, another innocent capuchin monkey. Like the Beebz,
Chris Brown also thought it sounded fun to have a monkey buddy hanging around the house.
But the authorities don't take lightly to stars buying illegal
endangered animals — and it's no surprise that the singer's monkey saga ended in court.
After posting a video on Instagram of Fiji — who he gave to his daughter — several people called
the California Wildlife Department, reporting Brown's possession of the monkey. Turns out,
Brown didn't have the proper paperwork and agents then confiscated Fiji.
Brown paid a high price for illegally owning the pet. CBS News reported that he was charged
with two misdemeanors — which would only be dropped if Brown paid $35,000 for Fiji's care
at a facility, with a promise to never purchase another "prohibited species."
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