Pet

This page is about domestic animals. For several meanings of the acronym PET, see PET.

A pet or companion animal is a domesticated animal that is kept by humans for companionship or for the beauty of its appearance or utterances, rather than for economic reasons.

While in theory one could keep a blue whale as a pet, in practice a small number of species of mammals and birds have dominated the pet scene for a very long time. Fish have joined them more recently. With the exception of iguanas and non-venomous snakes, few reptiles and amphibians make good pets.

The glofish, a genetically modified zebrafish with a bright red fluorescent color is the first genetically modified (GM) animal to be engineered as a pet.

A pet can be acquired from a breeder, an animal shelter, a pet store, and sometimes from people who have too many due to births. See also Dog adoption.

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