Lions, leopards, jaguars, chimps. In Fort Worth, they weren’t always just in the zoo.

Long before there was Netflix’s “Tiger King,” and now HBO’s “Chimp Crazy,” people all over the world owned undomesticated wild animals as pets, dating back to the ancient Egyptians, likely as a symbol of status.

Before the establishment of the animal rights activist group PETA in 1980, exotic pet owners regularly flaunted their animals to local news reporters. There are plenty of stories in Fort Worth from Star-Telegram staff members who wrote about escaped exotic pets who terrorized neighbors (and sometimes cleaned their pools) and the police who tried to round them up.

In 1951, it was an escaped Rhesus monkey, “Jocko,” whose owner was tired of trying to keep him from escaping into the surrounding Polytechnic Heights neighborhood and sold him to a rodeo clown. In 1984, it was a neglected, beer-drinking Malayan sun bear in Haltom City, “Puppy,” who kept scratching and biting passersby attempting to feed him. The bear was nearly euthanized, then unsuccessfully auctioned off, but was eventually rescued by a game refuge owner from Brownsboro. The stories of these mischievous pets hardly scratch the surface of DFW’s wildest tales.

Blondie the African lion

Star-Telegram reporter George Dolan first introduced “Blondie,” a 23-month-old African lion, to readers in July 1955. Dolan, along with photographer Joe McAulay, visited the lioness at her home in Graham and described children climbing on Blondie’s back for rides and the lion “playfully” gnawing on a utility man’s ankles as he read a meter.

“People are as casual about her as they are about the Cocker Spaniel next door,” wrote Dolan. Oilman Charles E. Hipp, Blondie’s owner, told Dolan he regularly took Blondie out on car rides, nightly walks, and to drive-in movie theaters.

Dolan’s feature made Blondie an overnight celebrity after the Associated Press picked up one of the photos taken by McAulay, and it was circulated in newspapers across the country. Just a few weeks later, Dolan reported that the Walt Disney camera crew was coming to town to film Blondie at Amon Carter Field for a new show, The Mickey Mouse Club. By September 1955, Blondie had appeared on the Garry Moore Show and graced the pages of Life Magazine in an article titled “Living Room Lion – Blondie, A Docile 200-Pound Texan, Becomes A Member of the Family.”

The Honeywells’ menagerie

In 1963, another African lion named “Tony” was featured in the Star-Telegram with owners Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Honeywell at their home just west of Lake Arlington. Tony’s siblings included a spotted leopard named “Randy” and a 9-month-old Himalayan bear named “Judy.” Mr. Honeywell, an animal trainer, received training tips from Blondie’s owner, Charles E. Hipp.

The Honeywells planned to take the animals on a cross-country tour of rural schools to lecture on animal training in the spring, and to exhibit in state and county fairs through the summer and fall. Unfortunately, en route to the North Carolina State Fair the following year, Randy escaped and attacked a 13-year-old news carrier in Winston-Salem, N.C., on the first day of his paper route. The boy suffered minor injuries, but Randy was shot and killed by police responding to the attack. The leopard’s pelt was gifted to the boy, which he was pictured with 50 years later in a follow-up feature by the Winston-Salem Journal.

Exotic pet ownership boom

Star-Telegram readers began seeing ads in the 1960s for exotic pets at Montgomery Ward on Seventh Street. The pet department of the large department store chain boasted an assortment of boa constrictors, chameleons, monkeys, iguanas, alligators, turtles, and birds. Some may speculate this was how the store received its nickname, “Monkey Wards.”

Even college students were beginning to cash in on to the exotic pet industry. In 1965, Arlington State College student Dan Cheatum, 23, told a WBAP reporter that he sold iguanas for $20 apiece, desert tortoises sold for $5, and boa constrictors were priced at $3 per foot.

By the 1970s, veterinarians throughout the U.S. were warning against owning wild animals as pets due to the threat of attacks and spread of disease (to both humans and other animals), as well as the general endangerment to the animal’s life in transport, by malnutrition, or inadequate housing needs. Despite this, by 1975, an estimated 3.5 million mammals, reptiles, and birds were being imported into the country every year. In Texas, the first statewide census of exotic animals was conducted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 1963, which reported 13 exotic species totaling some 13,000 animals. In 1984, the survey revealed about 75 species and 120,000 animals.

Jaguar standoff

In 1982, a 4-year-old Fort Worth girl was mauled and severely injured by a pet jaguar, owned by her mother, in her own home. Local news covered an ensuing standoff at the house for four days as the girl’s mother, identified as Karen Louise Hobbs, refused to surrender the jaguar to authorities. Hobbs guarded the house by threatening to shoot anyone on her property, while three animal control agents waited outside and a police helicopter circled the house.

As dozens of neighbors watched these events unfold, a team of animal control officers, police officers, veterinarians, and two employees from the International Wildlife Park in Grand Prairie confiscated the jaguar on the fourth day of the standoff. Authorities also confiscated an adult puma and a bobcat kitten, as well as nine dogs and a peacock. At the time, Fort Worth only had ordinances limiting the number of dogs a person could own but had few, if any, restrictions on owning exotic animals.

Deena the chimpanzee

Local legend, Deena the chimp, had a storied career as the Dallas Tornados soccer team mascot, the unofficial mascot of the Dallas Cowboys, judge at the Terlingua International Championship Chili Cookoff, painter, and, yes, as a stripper. It goes without saying that Deena’s path was similar to the chimps that appeared in “Chimp Crazy” that were trained to act in movies, entertain at birthday parties, and model for greeting card companies. Deena’s handler, Mike Stower, operated Rent-a-Chimp Inc., a firm in Dallas that provided chimpanzees for entertainment at events in the 1970s and 1980s.

Deena had her own stint as an escape artist. During one escapade in 1981, she was caught cleaning a woman’s swimming pool. Six months later, she got out again and was said to have disrupted a neighbor’s sedate game of bridge. As an entertainer, Deena made countless appearances at events throughout the DFW metroplex. In 1984, she was pictured by Star-Telegram photographer Ron T. Ennis picking pockets of Goodfellow Fund donors at a Fort Worth Exchange Club meeting. By 1986, Stower had trained Deena to perform strip teases during parties. Some of Deena’s celebrity clients reportedly included Gary Collins, Cheryl Ladd, Clint Eastwood, and Roger Staubach. Star-Telegram photographer Joyce Marshall covered one such performance in 1987 where Deena appeared at the 90th birthday party of Arlington physician Dr. Zack Bobo while (temporarily) wearing a T-shirt that read, “party animal.”

Legislation passed

Exotic pet ownership remains wildly popular in the United States. However, since the premiere of “Tiger King” in 2020, the The Big Cat Public Safety Act was enacted in 2022 to end the private ownership of big cats as pets in the U.S. Similar legislation was proposed in Congress ahead of the release of “Chimp Crazy” earlier this year, which aims to prohibit ownership of primates as pets in the U.S. A version of this legislation was first introduced by Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in 2005 and has been passed by the House of Representatives multiple times but has not yet made it past both houses for a vote.

Sara Pezzoni works toward promoting greater access to Fort Worth Star-Telegram archival collection materials as a staff member of the Special Collections department at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.