I don't see any issue with a person keeping ANY species as long as it's properly provided for. If it's a tortoise or a giraffe, as long as the owner takes proper care and has a good enclosure, who am I to say that a lion is a bad thing to own?

I've seen private owners with ten times better facilities for their monkeys than most owners have for their dog.

With 1 million people owning snakes in the US, how many are killing the pets? How many people dump that cute puppy when it gets 6 months old and they're bored with it? Yet the ASPCA isn't advocating outlawing dogs yet, are they?

The ASPCA, HSUS, PETA, are ALL starting with easy targets. Snakes are not the normal pet that most folks see walking on the end of a leash, leaping up to lick someone's face, etc etc. Once the downward slide begins, what's to stop it?

Think about the fact that you are saying that a lion is a bad pet. Why shouldn't someone own a lion if they have a proper habitat? How many people have been killed by pet lions in the US? How many are owned by private people who keep them in cages, healthy and contained and you'll never see them on the news because the lion doesn't get out and run down the mailman to bite him.

Even chimps. There's a TON of chimps held as private pets by people in the US. How many have gotten loose and maimed someone? Vesus how many have been properly contained and owned and cared for?

Are there bad homes for exotics? Of course. There's also bad dog owners, people who kill cats in the backyard by setting them on fire, people who buy a burmese to be the "cool" kid on the block.. and there's also laws on the book about the humane care of any animal held in captivity. How about we focus on helping make sure all pets/exotics/animals are cared for humanely, and focus less on the idea that certain animals shouldn't be owned vesus other animals we'd like to own ourselves? Remember that for every person you point at saying "You only want to own a lion because it's cool!" there's ten people pointing fingers at YOU saying the same thing because you own a snake.