We suppose the most popular pets (such as a cat or a dog) might just seem too average for some celebrities. Eccentric artists have been known for keeping exotic pets, and these famed names are no different. Find out what kinds of animals the beautiful people are looking after these days:
15 Strange Celebrity Pets
- Actress Kirstie Alley has been the devoted keeper of several lemurs for nearly 3 decades. Not only does she also employ full-time staff members to care for her lemur crew, but she has also provided financial support for them in her will. Lucky little lemurs!
- The popular Lorde song called “Royals” referred to celebrities keeping “tigers on a gold leash” and in this respect, the lyrics are dead-accurate! Boxing champ Mike Tyson once owned three Bengal tigers. Yikes!
- Pop culture magazines are often littered with pictures of famous people walking their dogs, or carrying their mini pooches around in New York City, or Los Angeles. Celebrities Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott look like a glamorous farming couple lost in the big city, walking around with their baby goat and silkie chicken in tow. (This farm animal fascination is relatively common for small-town girls who rose to stardom. Kelly Clarkson, who lovingly calls her home a “rescue ranch” houses a variety of pigs, goats, horses, and dogs.)
- George Clooney is considered by many to be the debonair king of sophistication, yet for 18 years he was the proud owner of an enormous pot-bellied pig named Max. (Though pigs are known to be intelligent pets, we had Clooney figured for more of a sleek Doberman Pinscher, or a black stallion kind of guy!)
- It is fitting that Kristen Stewart’s character in the Twilight Trilogy was drawn to a wolf-man character. In real life, the actress’ mother raises domestic wolf/dog hybrids, and Stewart has noted several times how much she enjoys playing with her wolf-dog Jack.
- Michael Jackson is an unsurprising name to appear on this list, as he was known for extreme eccentricity. Jackson famously owned a chimpanzee named Bubbles in the 1980’s, and his Bengal tiger posed with him on the album “Thriller,” which just so happened to be the tiger’s name.
- Another wild rock star, Miley Cyrus is another artist well-known for her love of animals. Along with several dogs, Miley also is mommy to a pink pet pig named Bubba Sue (with whom she has posed on magazine covers).
- Beloved actor Leonardo DiCaprio purchased a 38-pound tortoise back in 2010. This is one of the rare instances in pet-ownership where the resilient animal will likely live longer than his owner. (In this instance, Leo has a serious reason to put his tortoise in his will, as many wealthy pet owners have done before him!)
- Justin Beiber enchants the world with his melodious voice whenever the singer goes on tour. Perpetually by his side (often breaking airplane health codes) is the adorable monkey named Mally.
- Though he may not know just how pesky and aggressive these little buggers can be, singer Steven Tyler keeps a pet raccoon named Bandit. (We hope he doesn’t have any other pets, since these creatures can become predators to cats and dogs.)
- Heiress Paris Hilton once owned a kinkajou (a rare raccoon/lemur-like animal) named Baby Luv who she had to give away in 2006, when the animal bit her.
- With a name like Vanilla Ice (real name Robert Van Winkle), one can only imagine the kind of pets live in his house! The rapper kept a 60-pound walleroo (a cross between a wallaby and kangaroo) in his Florida home.
- Melanie Griffith and her mother Tippi Hedren (lead actress of Hitchcock’s The Birds) kept their wild African lion named Neil in their Los Angeles home during the early 1970’s. The lion was allowed to roam all over the house, even sleeping on Griffith’s bed when she was a teenager. Unsurprisingly, this proved to be disastrous in the future (as the wild cat injured the family members on several occasions) causing Melanie to need plastic surgery after the lion scratched her across the face.
- Enchanting actress Audrey Hepburn once took a co-star fawn home so the creature could be more comfortable around her. Hepburn, known for her striking beauty and expressive “doe eyes” was so loved by Pippin, that many observing them together noted that the baby deer treated Audrey like its mother.
- Performer Josephine Baker lived on the wild side, and was known for turning heads in Paris during the 1930’s. The unique singer would nonchalantly stroll down the streets with her leopard Chiquita on a leash.