History Main / AllAnimalsAreDomesticated

Unfortunately, there are a depressing number of people who think this is TruthInTelevision and are apparently under the impression that nature is just a bigger version of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]]. [[TooDumbToLive This usually does not end well...]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'': Playing with a [[MamaBear mother bear]]'s cubs right in front of her? That's a brilliant idea!

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* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime plays it straight most of the time but also averts it a lot, especially for particularly powerful or tempermental species (Gyarados is a common offender, as are species like Ursaring, Metagross, Crawdaunt, or Charizard), which are said to take a great level of skill to successfully train and will act feral if the Trainer isn't up to it. ''Especially'' holds true for OlympusMons. You'll never see Mewtwo, Lugia, Rayquaza, Arceus, or Zekrom even remotely act domesticated. However, the end of the Sinnoh arc introduced a one-shot character named Tobias, who somehow managed to tame a ''Darkrai and Latios'' and won the Sinnoh League with them.
* In ''Anime/WolfsRain,'' this trope is tragically proven false with [[TheWoobie Toboe]]. Despite being the meekest wolf, he [[spoiler: accidentally killed the kind old lady who took him in and tried to raise him as a pet.]] It is violently fought by other characters in the series.

* The manga ''Wild Cats'' (not to be confused with ''ComicBook/WildCATsWildStorm'') features a tame lion named Caesar (incidentally, a female) as the protagonist. The little boy who adopted her as a cub believed she was just a large house cat, and kept her even after learning the truth. Caesar grows up to be cowardly, shy, and is somewhere between a cat and a dog in her behavior.

* Ito from ''Anime/PunchLine'' keeps a bear cub that acts somewhere between a cat and a dog.

* Possibly parodied in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' in which Calvin frequently warns others of Hobbes' ferocity-- Hobbes appears to everyone else as a stuffed tiger.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'': Playing with a [[MamaBear mother bear]]'s cubs right in front of her? That's a brilliant idea!
* The film ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' (as well as the spin-off series ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'') is a subversion of this. While the dragons can be trained/tamed, they are not domesticated and wild dragons are considered extremely dangerous. It actually takes Hiccup several days just to earn Toothless's trust before he could approach the dragon, much less ride him. This is helped by the fact that it seems like dragons - particularly Toothless - are [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude smarter than real-life non-human animals]], making it less of a domestication and more of a partnership.

* Subverted in ''Film/BringingUpBaby''. Baby the leopard is fairly docile most of the time, but most of the cast is well aware that he is still a large and potentially dangerous animal that could do some damage if unhappy. Played straight when everyone mistakes a temperamental and vicious circus leopard for the tame Baby.
* The documentary ''Film/GrizzlyMan'' averts this trope: {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Timothy Treadwell spends thirteen summers hanging out with grizzly bears, respectfully admiring the bears from afar. It was only after spending season after season around the same pair that he was able to get closer and closer to them, to where they were comfortable with him cuddling with them. He'd probably have been lauded as a semi-deluded but amazing documentarian, but after one season he missed a plane out of Alaska and decided to go back to the woods. He encountered another set of bears, one he'd never seen before, [[TooDumbToLive but assumed he would be just as "in touch" with them as the pair he'd known for near a decade]].

* ''Film/CryWilderness'' plays this maddeningly straight, with pretty much every animal featured acting domesticated towards the protagonists. Naturally, when the film was featured on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', the riffers got a lot of mileage out of mocking this (or just encouraging the animals to maul the characters).

* Many of the misguided exotic-animal owners on Animal Planet's ''Series/FatalAttractions'' are TruthInTelevision examples of how mistaking this trope for reality can get you killed or maimed. Unfortunately, the show ruins the reputation for people that actually can deal with such animals as pets, to the point the movement to ban ''all'' exotic pets - even genuinely safe ones like boa constrictors or domesticated ferrets - has gone way too far.

* Ayla in Jean Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' saga has, as one of her many, many awesome abilities, managed to tame not only a wild horse but a cave lion, a pet wolf and by the end of the series the horse's two foals.

* ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' (and the [[Series/GameOfThrones TV series]]) has each of the Stark children given a dire wolf pup because it's the symbol of their house. Most of them turn out all right, but Shaggydog, four-year-old Rickon's dire wolf, winds up semi-feral -- [[EmpathyPet not unlike his owner]], who grows increasingly wild from lack of parental supervision.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Hagrid believes this trope is true, though it's averted. This is PlayedForLaughs as Hagrid attempts to take care of several species of magical wild animals. He usually names them something ridiculous (like Fluffy the three-headed dog) and incurs many, many injuries for his trouble. It actually makes him bad at his teaching job, since he forgets normal children can't shrug off injury like he can. In the third book Draco ignores even the precautions Hagrid tells him to take when meeting a hippogriff and gets injured for his trouble.
* Defied in ''Literature/LifeOfPi''. Pi and his brother live at a zoo, so their father makes ''damned'' sure the kids know that the animals are dangerous and are not their playmates. He does this by not feeding a tiger for three days, then making them watch as he feeds it a live goat, then going around to every animal in the zoo and explaining in graphic detail how they can maim and kill you. Pi takes this knowledge to heart, and it's a big reason why he's able to survive for so long on a lifeboat with said tiger.
* Zigzagged in ''Literature/WarriorCats''. The characters are all domesticated cats however they live in feral colonies called "Clans". Clan cats live in a forest near twolegs (humans) but try their best to avoid contact with them. Very few clan cats are ex-pets due to FantasticRacism against "kittypets". Despite the fact most are completely feral, a few have been taken in by twolegs as adults and become kittypets. Feral cats are only considered adoptable if they're kittens; adults are too skittish and aggressive to make good pets. Some instances have ended up more realistically though. For example, Graystripe was temporarily taken in by twolegs however he didn't make a good kittypet. He was wary of his twolegs and shredded his toys. Cloudtail was raised in the forest from 1-month and when he was "kidnapped" by humans he ran off the first chance he got.

* Bella makes this mistake in ''Literature/ADogsWayHome''. She's a dog and thinks other animals think like dogs as well. While traveling in the mountains, she adopts an orphaned cougar cub she dubs "Big Kitten". Bella herself was raised by a feral cat, so she understands how cats (at least, domestic cats) work. For much of the book Bella fantasizes about herself and Big Kitten living with her owners, but in the end she realizes Big Kitten refuses to leave the forest. Big Kitten isn't like her, or even Mother Cat, so the two end up parting ways.
* ''Literature/ALionInTheMeadow'': The lion eventually becomes a "house lion" in the revised ending. Justified in that he's a VegetarianCarnivore and can talk.
* Pretty much any animal that the protagonists of ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'' bother to capture, as opposed to shoot and eat on sight, is readily domesticated without much fuss or any setbacks. This includes animals which violently resist captivity in real life, such as onagers and bighorn sheep.

* In some of the "classic" ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games you can befriend and ride a (baby) tiger or ''dinosaur''.
* Defied in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', when Ellie excitedly points out some dogs in an abandoned suburb, Joel warns her that those are wild dogs and she needs to keep her distance (the dogs run away as you approach).
* Defied in ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', where if your Sim tries to pet a skunk, he/she will get sprayed by said skunk.
* Most wildlife in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' can be captured in cages and turned into pets by dwarves with the Animal Training labor, from stuff like lions to bears to gila monsters to giant rhesus macaques. Trained animals slowly revert back to wilderness over time, and as such require constant retraining. Certain animals like dogs, leopards and elephants can be given war or hunting training, increasing their combat prowess. If a trained animal breeds and you train the offspring before it reaches adulthood, they become permanently tame (you can't domesticate wildlife in a civilization-wide manner, but future fortresses made in the same world will start with a bonus to how easily they can train animals already trained elsewhere).
* With ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'' being basically ''Dwarf Fortress'' [[RecycledInSpace in space]], animal handling works mostly identical. However, Earth-like animals found on the Rim are almost universally genetically modified variants of the creatures we're familiar with, with many of them being specifically tailored for ease of domestication so that future colonists would have an easier time getting settled in. The most common household and farm animals like horses, dromedaries, buffalo-esque muffalos and dogs are so docile that pretty much anyone can tame them. The most extreme examples, namely cows, sheep and goat, are literally incapable of surviving in the wild on their own, meaning they can only be acquired from traders and are never even met in a feral state. On the flipside, while almost any creature can be tamed eventually, most really don't like being bothered by pesky humans, and attempting to interact with them without extremely high animal handling skills will usually result in your colonists getting torn apart in no time flat.
* Nearly all creatures in ''VideoGame/ArkSurvivalEvolved'' can be hand-tamed by humans, not just the dinosaurs. This is implicitly because they were genetically altered or manufactured to be so by the creators of the Arks.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'', where [[http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=896 this]] happens.
* ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'': While the wolves moving into the neighborhood caused quite a stir, they're friendly enough and seem to be able to integrate without too much trouble. They're all sapient however, so it works.

* Most wildlife in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' can be captured in cages and turned into pets by dwarves with the Animal Training labor, from stuff like lions to bears to gila monsters to giant rhesus macaques. Trained animals slowly revert back to wilderness over time, and as such require constant retraining. Certain animals like dogs, leopards and elephants can be given war or hunting training, increasing their combat prowess. If a trained animals breeds and you train the offspring before it reaches adulhood, they become permanently tame (you can't domesticate wildlife in a civilization-wide manner, but future fortresses made in the same world will start with a bonus to how easily they can train animals already trained elsewhere).

* The manga ''Wild Cats'' (not to be confused with ''ComicBook/WildCATs'') features a tame lion named Caesar (incidentally, a female) as the protagonist. The little boy who adopted her as a cub believed she was just a large house cat, and kept her even after learning the truth. Caesar grows up to be cowardly, shy, and is somewhere between a cat and a dog in her behavior.

* Averted in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' in which Calvin frequently warns others of Hobbes' ferocity; but played straight with Mr. Bun.

* Also seen in American National Parks, as some tourists seem to assume that because the Park permits tourists and is regulated by the government, that must mean the animals within are domesticated. They're not: the wildlife within National Parks is ''wild'', and even the herbivores, like bison, will attack if they feel threatened, never mind creatures like bears. The whole point of the National Park system is in fact to ''preserve'' parts of the American wilderness and keep them wild.
* It's often assumed all common pet animals are domesticated. This isn't true. For example, many pet birds, such as cockatiels and budgies, are only tame and they require rigorous hand-taming to even be petted. If one isn't hand-fed from a young age (as most pet store birds aren't), it'll be aggressive and skittish by default.

* As many with many a story, there's an inversion of this trope where some people, who don't want their (domesticated) pet anymore, will think it would do better in the wild. This doesn't often end well.
* Inverted with ferrets. They're a long domesticated species but are commonly mistaken for exotic pets because they closely resemble wild weasels. Ferrets are banned in many areas due to this misconception. It's stated that they're a danger to children and can become invasive predators if they get loose, but ferrets aren't any more dangerous than a cat and can't survive on their own (unlike most domestic cats).
* Inverted with rats. The common "fancy rat" is actually a domesticated rat, not a tamed wild rat, with various differences from their wild ancestors. They're frequently mistaken for wild animals and loose fancy rats are often killed due to this mistake.

** The series also uses this trope when Sakaki meets an Iriomote kitten, a highly-endangered exotic species, while visiting Okinawa. In spite of him being a wild, meat-eating beast, Sakaki can pet and hold him, and he even attempts to follow her home when she leaves. A few episodes later, the cat ''actually shows up'' to drive away the gang of feral cats that's cornered Sakaki; she ends up keeping him and naming him Mayaa, after the Okinawan word for the species. This creates the humorous irony that Mayaa behaves like an ordinary housecat towards Sakaki, while the domesticated housecats behave more like wild animals towards her; an example and an inversion of this trope at the same time. The explanation behind Mayaa's behavior is that, while Sakaki's [[AloofDarkHairedGirl intimidating appearance]] causes feral cats to become afraid of her, Mayaa instead sees those aspects as reminiscent of his mother, who was killed in a car accident.

** A RunningGag has Sakaki try to pet a feral cat and is inevitably bitten. It's actually a little surprising she's ever able to get that close in the first place, since feral cats usually run away whenever humans make any concerted movement toward them. Later in the series it's revealed that the cat Sakaki keeps trying to pet is a dominant tom over a colony of around a dozen other feral cats, and thus is not only unafraid of humans, but capable of fighting them in a surprisingly effective way.[[note]]Feral cats are not actually as solitary as they appear; they are extremely territorial toward one another (and will frequently fight each other to try expand their territory, especially to steal territory from sick or injured members of a colony) but will band together to drive off larger predators if they repeatedly harass members of the colony.[[/note]] [[spoiler:This actually happens to Sakaki in a later episode, where she is cornered by the tom and his fellow cats in an alley and ends up pretty badly scratched (especially since she wouldn't fight back). Later the cats surround her again, clearly intending to attack, only to be driven off by the solitary (and at that point extremely hungry and dehydrated) Iriomote kitten she later names "Mayaa", the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_language Okinawan]] word for "(wild?)cat".]]
** The series also uses this trope when Sakaki meets Mayaa, an Iriomote Cat in Okinawa. In spite of it being a wild, meat-eating beast, Sakaki can pet it, hold it, and Mayaa both follows her home and doesn't really show any more violent behaviour than a normal housecat probably due to RuleOfFunny, since while Mayaa behaves like a house cat towards Sakaki, the domesticated house cats behave more like wild animals towards her, creating an example and an inversion of this trope at the same time, and WordOfGod says that house cats (including feral ones) see Sakaki as being large and intimidating, which frightens them, but those same qualities remind Mayaa of his mother [[spoiler:who was killed in a car accident]].

Another strong factor is the huge number of Website/YouTube videos available showing "wild" foxes (red, white, and yellow), other canines (coyotes, dingos, hybrids of all types), and smaller cats (up to lynx size, though you do find the occasional cougar) living in apparent domestic tranquility. There are also an increasingly large number of wildlife sanctuaries where you can go along and 'pet a wolf'. Again, most people tend to miss that these animals ''only behave like pets around people they know'', usually have their own 'play/sleep room' (that they trash) and are extremely difficult/expensive to look after. The domestication is usually only partial and not hereditary, and you're only seeing the successful cases. That ambassador wolf who shoves his head into your lap and rolls over begging for you to pet his tummy? Almost certainly 50% of the animals at such places would simply run away if given the chance, and 90% of the rest will eventually bite you. The keepers picked this one for a reason.

Note that "domesticated" means "genetically-altered to meet human needs", not "tamed". Until very recently, this meant intentional or unintentional selective breeding. A feral housecat is domesticated, but a trained bear is not. Also, there ''are'' some animal species that can be somewhat successfully tamed or trained if not ''entirely'' domesticated, usually due to a combination of small size (meaning even if they do act out they generally aren't threatening to teen or adult human life), intelligence (meaning training can be successful), and/or partial breeding for those traits and friendliness to humans. Some good examples would be most small rodents (field or house mice, also including wild rats/prairie dogs/gophers/tree squirrels if [[RaisedByHumans raised from birth by humans]] and trained, though their natural instincts to dig and hoard need to be accounted for), skunks (if deodorized + spayed/neutered + vaccinated against rabies and having been raised with humans from birth), and some small monkeys (in their case, if raised properly alongside humans, which means ''no'' fear-based training, raising/training much as one would a human baby/toddler), with the one larger example being some wolf-hybrid dogs (those that have docility and intelligence bred as traits). Of course, most of these, with the exception of small rodents like mice, require specialized training for their trainers/owners as well in ''how'' to train and care for them, so you can't just go and pet a wild skunk or let your female dog mate with a wolf at random or bring that monkey stealing oranges from the fruit stand into your home, either.

Part of the cause of this is simply that [[TeamPet animal sidekicks]] are [[RuleOfCute really adorable]] (and [[RuleOfCool loyal wild animal companions are cool in themselves]]), but most of the more interesting ones are not of domesticated species, and the only rational way for the hero to get one is from the wild. Taming an adult animal is far more trouble than it's worth. Even taming a baby one never does much for softening its wild instincts. (Incidentally, no reptiles are truly domesticated; they adjust to ''captivity'' well given the right temperatures and food, but that's pretty much it)

Another strong factor is the huge number of Website/YouTube videos available showing 'wild' foxes (red white and yellow) canines (coyotes, dingos, hybrids of all types) and smaller cats (up to lynx size, though you do find the occasional cougar) living in apparent domestic tranquility. There are also an increasingly large number of wildlife sanctuaries where you can go along and 'pet a wolf'. Again, most people tend to miss that these animals ''only behave like pets around people they know'', usually have their own 'play/sleep room' (that they trash) and are extremely difficult/expensive to look after. The domestication is usually only partial and not hereditary, and you're only seeing the successful cases. That ambassador wolf who shoves his head into your lap and rolls over begging for you to pet his tummy? Almost certainly 50% of the animals at such places would simply run away if given the chance, and 90% of the rest will eventually bite you. The keepers picked this one for a reason.

* It's often assumed all common pet animals are domesticated. This isn't true. For example, many pet birds, such as cockatiels and budgies, are only tame and they require rigorous hand-taming to even be petted. If one isn't hand-fed from a young age (as most pet store birds aren't), they'll be aggressive and skittish on default.
* Cheetahs can be fairly easily tamed, and are fairly harmless to humans in the wild. This is because Cheetahs are [[CripplingOverspecialization adapted to hunt a narrow list of prey]] that humans aren't even close to being on. They tend to be skittish around everything else due to their light build. This is unfortunately why they are endangered more than hunting, they make extremely popular exotic pets.

* Heavily used, probably justified in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''.
** Every single one of these superpowered magical beasts, based on everything from pot plants to jellyfish to dinosaurs and dragons, can be relatively easily captured, [[DefeatMeansFriendship instantly tamed]] and may well come to act like a family pet. And why yes, this does mean you can have [[FluffyTamer various kinds of giant monsters]] [[GentleGiant acting like a friendly dog]]. Don't mess with a wild one, though.

** The games also avert it in that captured Pokémon start with low affection. You're not instantly friends with them, just [[DefeatMeansPlayable their trainers.]] You need to gain their trust though ThePowerOfFriendship, and even then your trustworthy Pokémon can ignore you if they don't see you as worthy of being obeyed (i.e. you don't have the right badges).

* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime plays it straight most of the time but also averts it a lot, especially for particularly powerful or tempermental species (Gyarados is a common offender, as are species like Ursaring, Metagross, Crawdaunt, or Charizard), which are said to take a great level of skill to successfully train and will act feral if the Trainer isn't up to it. ''Especially'' holds true for OlympusMons. You'll never see Mewtwo, Lugia, Rayquaza, Arceus, or Zekrom even remotely act domesticated. However, the end of the Sinnoh arc introduced a one-shot character named Tobias, who somehow managed to tame a ''Darkrai'' and won the Sinnoh League with it.

Note that "domesticated" means "genetically-altered to meet human needs", not "tamed". Until very recently, this meant intentional or unintentional selective breeding. A feral housecat is domesticated, but a trained bear is not. Also, there ''are'' some animal species that can be somewhat successfully tamed or trained if not ''entirely'' domesticated, usually due to a combination of small size (meaning even if they do act out they generally aren't threatening to teen or adult human life), intelligence (meaning training can be successful), and/or partial breeding for those traits and friendliness to humans. Some good examples would be most small rodents (field or house mice, also including wild rats/prairie dogs/gophers/tree squirrels if raised from birth by humans and trained, though their natural instincts to dig and hoard need to be accounted for), skunks (if deodorized + spayed/neutered + vaccinated against rabies and having been raised with humans from birth), and some small monkeys (in their case, if raised properly alongside humans, which means ''no'' fear-based training, raising/training much as one would a human baby/toddler), with the one larger example being some wolf-hybrid dogs (those that have docility and intelligence bred as traits). Of course, most of these, with the exception of small rodents like mice, require specialized training for their trainers/owners as well in ''how'' to train and care for them, so you can't just go and pet a wild skunk or let your female dog mate with a wolf at random or bring that monkey stealing oranges from the fruit stand into your home, either.

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Jasmine has a pet tiger named Rajah. Not only does Rajah only tear people's clothes to see GoofyPrintUnderwear instead of tear them apart, but the sultan can scream at Rajah without any sort of worry. Rajah also acts more like a guard dog than a domesticated cat, growling at Aladdin when he gets too close to Jasmine the first time.
* ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'': Playing with a [[MamaBear mother bear]]'s cubs right in front of her? That's a brilliant idea!

* Zigzagged in ''Literature/WarriorCats''. The characters are all domesticated cats however they live in feral colonies called "clans". Clan cats live in a forest near twolegs (humans) but try their best to avoid contact with them. Very few clan cats are ex-pets due to FantasticRacism against "kittypets". Despite the fact most are completely feral, a few have been taken in by twolegs as adults and become kittypets. Feral cats are only considered adoptable if they're kittens; adults are too skittish and aggressive to make good pets. Some instances have ended up more realistically though. For example, Graystripe was temporarily taken in by twolegs however he didn't make a good kittypet. He was wary of his twolegs and shredded his toys.

* Bella makes this mistake in ''Literature/ADogsWayHome''. She's a dog and thinks other animals think like dogs as well. While traveling in the mountains, she adopts an orphaned cougar cub she dubs "Big Kitten". Bella herself was raised by a feral cat, so she understands how cats work. For much of the book she fantasizes about herself and Big Kitten living with her owners, but in the end she realizes Big Kitten refuses to leave the forest. She's not like her or even Mother Cat so the two end up parting ways.

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