Utah Is Not a State Where You Can Bring Home This Giant Cat as a Pet

If you have ever seen a bobcat in the wild, they look kind of like a striped male cat until you get up close and realize it is really big. There have been people who brought a baby bobcat home thinking it was a kitten and tried to adopt it. Here’s where Utah stands on bobcats as pets. 

Special Permit Required and Not for Pet Ownership 

Since 1979, the State of Utah has considered bobcats a protected species. There are very few permits for raising bobcats, and most of these are grandfathered in from before the law. There are no permits for keeping bobcats as pets. 

There are people who have tried to adopt a bobcat. A woman in Tennessee found a kitten running across a road and stopped to rescue it. After examining it when she got home, she discovered it was a baby bobcat. 

In Texas a Couple Lives with Two Bobcats as Pets 

Not all states in the U.S. have the same laws. Texas does allow bobcats as pets, and there is a couple that has a couple in their home. Although these cats are much bigger than a house cat, they act about the same. 

The couple says they have never been threatened by their pet bobcats although they do play rough. The couple said they have the scars to prove it. From the video, these two pets do seem a lot like normal cats. 

Read More: See What Is Growing Out of the Face of Some Wild Rabbits

They do say they require a special diet, and these big cats can live to be 30 or 40 years old. Not everyone could handle bobcats as pets. It is probably a good thing Utah has outlawed people owning bobcats.