Servals and other small exotic cats are kept as pets in many US states, despite their highly active, territorial, and wild behavioral profile that makes domestic environments fundamentally inadequate for their needs.
Servals are wild animals whose behavioral and spatial needs are fundamentally incompatible with domestic settings. The high activity level, territorial drives, and predatory behavior of servals cannot be satisfied in even large domestic enclosures. Animals that are repeatedly rehomed experience compounding psychological stress from social disruption and unfamiliar environments. The exotic pet market for servals creates welfare harm at every stage from breeding through the high-turnover ownership cycle.