Exotic mammals are also becoming increasingly more popular as pets. For example, the domesticated hedgehog has been selectively bred to the point where its physical characteristics no longer directly match its wild European and African counterparts.[citation needed] One reads occasional reports in People and other magazines of individuals who have lrun into legal trouble for keeping largeexotic pets, both in rural estates and urban apartments. A few years ago, New York Police Department officers arrested a man who had kept large cats and an alligator in a small Manhattan apartment [2] Many animal species are difficult to handle and cannot be pets for the general populace.

A pet can be acquired from an animal shelter, a breeder, and from private transactions, typically due to the giving away of extra newborns after the birth of a litter. See also pet adoption. Because of environmental and public safety concerns, Pet Tags some pets are illegal in many jurisdictions.