Hogging the screen TikTok fuels increase in exotic pet ownership

In a quiet neighbourhood in California's capital, residents are used to the temper tantrums of a two-year-old.

- Emma Madden

"No, Merlin!" they will hear his mother shout whenever he has had enough of his favourite snack. "No more ice cubes." Mina Alali, the parent in question, said: "We haven't had any complaints from the neighbours yet." That might be because Merlin is probably the cutest two year old in California and happens to be a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.

Merlin is something of a local celebrity and has lived with Alali, her boyfriend and their expanding menagerie of pets (rats, dogs and the occasional cow) since 2022. The family spend their days snorting and singing to one another, fighting over fallen apples and asking for pig-uccinos at a local Starbucks drive-through, to the delight of millions on TikTok.

The site features an abundance of pets like Merlin: there are pigs aplenty, as well as cows, goats and millipedes. Global demand for exotic pets is on the increase and the market could become as profitable as that for cats and dogs.

Social media has helped to normalise niche pets and with each new pig and porcupine in suburbia, the lines between what were once deemed "wild" and "tame" are smudged.