mingsphinx It feels like your heart is getting ripped right out of you when you see what happens. Almost as if you are right there. Even though the narrative is told mostly through an animal lover's perspective -- which seeks to restrict the ownership of exotic pets -- we also hear from those who think otherwise. He may be the subject of much condemnation on these boards, but Terry's dilemma with his pet lions really does articulate the position many owners of exotic pets find themselves in: they love the animals and would defend them with their lives, but a wild and dangerous animal taken out of its natural habitat poses a threat to all.The sincerity of everyone involved in this film really does shine through. But the central character, Tim Harrison, comes across particularly as someone who genuinely cares about animals. It was Tim's authenticity that colored much of the material and it was the trust he fostered that made it possible to gain the kind of access needed to make this film.Well worth your time to watch this even if you disagree with the premise.

bball_cay Wow. As an animal rights enthusiast, this film was incredibly sad to watch. The viewer cannot help but side with Tim Harrison, with his compassionate and also passionate drive to help animals under all circumstances. I don't know how he was even able to restrain himself every time he tried to hold a conversation with Terry. Terry was presented in this movie as being very ignorant and selfish, and I don't doubt that this is how he was outside of filming towards the exotic animals he called his "pets". Him and thousands of other exotic pet owners are not even giving a thought to how these wild animals feel as "pets", something easily controlled and put in horrible circumstances. This, along with the public safety concerns surrounding the majority of large and/or poisonous animals, is why it is crucial that the ownership of exotic animals needs to be banned in North America. Especially considering many of these animals are put in stressful situations and are endangered. This movie really gives the viewer something to think about.

ltlacey My low rating for this film is just because of this one very specific scene: Where we have to watch and hear a male lion slowly get electrocuted to death. People are screaming as no one knows what happened or is still going on, the female lion won't let him into the little hut since there was no room there either, so we watch this poor lion trying to get away from whatever it is that is causing him so much pain until the poor thing finally dies. Take out this scene and make some little blurb for the audience so that we just learn about his unfortunate death and you have a very decent documentary (rating of a 9) about people who like to keep exotic animals and the reasons why we should not.

MartinHafer Normally I wouldn't be quite so blunt in my summary, but wow--the people featured in this film who owned these incredibly dangerous 'pets' were crazy!! While I knew there were a lot of sick folks who owned big cats and chimps, I didn't realize the problem was that bad. The documentary folks do two things--travel with people who are trying to get these animals away from irresponsible owners as well as show the owners themselves. While the film is clearly against most folks having these animals as pets, it equivocated a bit from time to time--such as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officials saying that they were NOT in favor of banning the owning of these animals and the film portrayed the owners rather decently.Overall, a very bizarre but important film--important because crocodiles, tigers, chimps and the like are quite probably living near you! In fact, the Dayton, Ohio locale for some of the film was a bit scary, as I used to live between Dayton and Cincinnati--and there are apparently LOTS of insanely dangerous animals in that area.Also, the film apparently came out just before the biggest and scariest story about insane people with exotics--the man near Zanesville, Ohio who deliberately released his dangerous managerie (which included 18 tigers) and then killed himself!! Wow...