A social media obsession for the rich to pose in selfies with big cats is driving cheetahs to the ‘brink of extinction’, a charity has warned.

In the Middle East big cats are popular pets for the rich – with cubs selling for tens of thousands of dollars.

The Times reported that cubs are commonly shipped from nearby African countries to Gulf states to cater for an ‘insatiable demand’.

An estimated 3,000 cheetahs are kept as pets in the UAE alone despite breeding and trading being outlawed in the country.

Impact

The industry is having a devastating impact on numbers in nearby African countries Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia – where there are thought to be only around 300 wild cheetahs remaining.

Across the whole of Africa, cheetah numbers have been in rapid decline. In 1900 there were thought to be more than 100,000 cheetahs roaming free in the wild, and now that number is thought to have fallen to below 7,000.

The Cheetah Conservation Fund has warned about the impact of a poaching industry which steals newborn cheetah cubs from their homes before shipping them to the Middle East. Three out of four of the cubs die during the journey.

Kathleen Miles, from activist group Alliance to Counter Crime Online, told the Times that posts on social media involving pet cheetahs had been rapidly on the rise in recent years.

She explained:“Sheikhs posing with cheetahs in their cars is a fairly typical example. It is blatant.”

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