What’s your favorite animal? Are you a dog person because you’ve had them as pets since you were a child and you can’t imagine coming home without being able to cuddle a big fur baby? Or do you prefer turtles with their cute little faces reminiscent of old men and their beautiful shells? There’s an infinite number of animals out there to choose from (okay maybe not infinite, but there are millions!), but for some reason, we humans tend to be drawn to certain creatures more so than others. Why we usually prefer fluffy, soft and squishy creatures to anything that has venom, fangs or talons, I’m not quite sure. But everyone in the animal kingdom serves a unique purpose, and each creature deserves to be celebrated.
One curious reddit user recently asked others to share what animals have bad reputations that they don’t deserve, and hundreds of commenters came out in defense of these awesome creatures. We’ve gathered some of the best responses down below, featuring misunderstood animals who get their fair share of bad publicity, so be sure to upvote the answers that make you rethink your stance on these creatures. Keep reading to also find an interview with Ali of the Cool Facts About Animals podcast. Then let us know in the comments what your favorite infamous animal is, and if you’re looking for another Bored Panda article celebrating animals who deserve better, we recommend you check out this story next.
#1
Pigs. Any farm animal, but pigs and cows don’t deserve being mocked and tortured. Pigs are highly intelligent animals, some outperforming 3 year old toddlers. “Pig” is used as an insult to men/ cops, but it’s a really gross comparison because they’re smart, sweet, and just wanna decorate their little area with flowers. Be nice to all animals please and at least learn about who you’re eating.
Image source: Oliviasharp2000, Ben Mater
#2
Honey bees. People are terrified but the last thing a honeybee wants to do is sting you. They just want to work. They are gentle creatures with personality and moods.
Image source: thickener, Kunal Kalra
#3
Wolves! They help regulate buffalo, eagle, deer, and other animal’s populations. People see them as vicious, dangerous, and rabid animals. It really sucks, people are killing them too! There’s only roughly 94 red wolves left in the Yellowstone National Park (located in the USA), it really sucks. Wolves are now on the highly endangered animals list. Especially since people are luring wolves out of Yellowstone to trap and kill them. Wolves deserve more love. People are really sick.
Image source: Specialist_Upstairs6, Thomas Bonometti
#4
Black cats. They are even more adorable than the other cats and I don’t understand why they have become the most known symbol of bad luck.
Image source: SpacePickle95, Nathan Riley
#5
Possums. They are very disease resistant. They are unlikely to carry rabies, because their body temperature is too low for the rabies virus to thrive.
Image source: anon, Robert Linder
#6
Greyhounds.
People breed them and keep them in concrete cages and abuse them and the only interactions they get is being made to chase a fluffy thing to activate their prey drive to win their owners money.
And people wonder why they’re nervous dogs who chase anything resembling a bunny, including cats and small dogs.
Source: i fostered rescued racing dogs
Image source: its_jaz_tho, Tonia Kraakman
#7
Foxes. Even in children’s fairy tales, we were shown that foxes are cunning and greedy. However, in life they are like dogs with the habits of a cat and make cute sounds. Although I may be wrong
Image source: ZaneElrick, Qijin Xu
#8
Ravens people think they’re evil just because sometimes they’re scavengers, and they were known to pick at bodies when public executions were still a thing, and because of that, they’re forever the symbol of death and many people think they’re evil.
Image source: BroskiWind, Cristina Glebova
#9
Bats. They eat more insects in one night than a spider will in a month. And they’re rarely aggressive.
Edit: I’m seeing this theme in the comments, so I thought I should address it. Bats aren’t harmless. They are a carrier of rabies, which is deadly to humans and animals alike. You should definitely be *wary of them. They are wild animals, and though they aren’t usually confrontational, that doesn’t make them friendly, either. All I ask is if they are not bothering you, leave them alone. If they are, then please, do something about it. I don’t want anyone to feel like they are obligated to allow bats to nest in their chimney or attic. Bats belong in the wild, not in your house.
Image source: Independent_Sea_836, Peter Neumann
#10
Moths! There are some absolutely gorgeous species of moths that are even prettier than butterflies. They are also pollinators.
Image source: dead-or-asleep, Colin Davis
#11
Snakes. They are trying to do their snakey thing and then some a*****e blamed them because some woman ate a piece of fruit.
Image source: darkwulf1, Timothy Dykes
#12
Sharks.
Humans taste disgusting apparently and sharks prefer something with blubber like seals or whales. Sharks have very very poor eyesight so they often mistake surfers for seals (imagine someone laying down on a surf board, it looks like a seal from below) They aren’t entirely sure what humans are and sometimes they’ll do a test nibble to check. Then will go away once they realize that it’s not a seal. Unfortunately their test nibbles aren’t very gentle but also aren’t fatal as long as no major arteries were hit.
You’re more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark.
Image source: CapaxInfini, Chase Baker
#13
Wolves…they are vital to ecosystems and if you leave them alone they will do the same, if you save its life it’ll remember years later, and its tragic they have such a huge negative stigma against them
Image source: Many_Rule_9280, M L
#14
spiders, they’re just doing their thing being good people and eating the true pests
Image source: COVID-69420bbq, Elizabeth
#15
Rats! Everyone says they’re nasty, but they’re extremely clean. They’re also very intelligent!
Also the black plague was caused by fleas that infected the rats, not the rats themselves.
Image source: strwbrrybrie, Denitsa Kireva
#16
At least in my area of the US, the buzzards clean up the trash and dead animals on the roads. Yes, they are not pretty to look at but they do the job barely anyone wants to do.
Image source: Cheetodude625, Frans van Heerden
#17
Since all the animals I wanted to mention already have been, I would instead like to nominate some select dog breeds, particularly breeds like Rottweiler, Doberman and Mastiff. These dogs get a really bad rep as being violent killing machines. That’s pretty unfair, though. Just about any dog will be violent if you raise it that way and abuse the f**k out of it. Just about any dog can be super friendly and loving if you raise it properly as well. Even Chihuahuas and Jack Russells, with reputations for trying to fight everything that exists, can be adorable and innocent if they’re raised and nurtured within a loving household.
So many dogs get a bad reputation just because of the media skewing things, and that’s not fair. Have you even seen the families that raise these “violent” dogs that end up on the news? Those people often look very clearly like troublemakers, with a few that are less noticeable in that regard. Instead of blaming dogs for their actions, blame the sh*tty owners who’ve turned dogs into that.
Image source: HelixDraxzonyx, Jozef Fehér
#18
Skunks. They feed on a variety of pests around our homes and typically spray when they feel their life is in danger. So just don’t sneak up on one lol.
They eat wasps and mice for example.
Image source: jc456981, Bryan Padron
#19
Bears. Sans the Polar Bears which are aggressive towards humans (but also because they don’t live near a lot of people anyway and aren’t really used to them), most other types of bears that live near humans are not normally aggressive unless provoked, and will try to flee if possible. The black bear in particular is actually a fairly tame bear, and even the brown bears (Grizzly, Kodiak, etc.) bears will also generally leave you alone if you don’t bother them.
Image source: llcucf80, Rey Emsen
#20
Rats. Everyone thinks they’re disease ridden rodents but they’re very affectionate pets! They feel emotions, too! They’re just silly little creatures!
Image source: NolaGranola1727, Pixabay
#21
Tarantulas.
They are extremely interesting creatures who want nothing to do with you. Many species of terestrial/fossorial tarantulas that can die from falling literally 2ft to the ground or less. They are very, *very* fragile and rarely bite at all, and even then, **no-one** has ever died from a tarantula bite. Some females can live to **35+** years old with many hitting over ten years to twenty years easy.
If you see one in the wild, *please* leave it be. Some people find it funny to try and drown them in their underground homes or poke at them from afar, but its cruel, they aren’t hurting you.
(I am a tarantula keeper lol)
Image source: Dazzze, Damon On Road
#22
Hyenas
Image source: IfAwardDeleteAccount, Javi Lorbada
#23
Gulls are actually really expressive and very social, so they’re fun to watch. Mature gulls in flight are quite beautiful over the ocean. The reason they go after people’s food is because people feed them.
Image source: olivi_yeah, Samantha Kennedy
#24
Bats are my favorite animal and it breaks my heart that they’re always the scapegoat. Rabies? Bats. SARS? Bats. COVID? Bats. They’re very unlikely to pass on rabies, despite what that rabies copypasta might have you think because they die quickly from it.
Image source: an_ineffable_plan, René Riegal
#25
Mosquitos have a vital role in the ecosystem. They are the food of some animals like frogs and dragonflies. They are vegetarian most of the time; they eat nectar. They only bite when they are pregnant; they need the protein in the blood for the eggs.
BUT, mosquitos also have the most number of persons killed. They are the carrier of many diseases like malaria and dengue.
Image source: Background-Lunch698, Syed Ali
#26
Alligators! So many get killed every year because they’re considered nuisance gators even if they’re not doing anything. Yes, of course they are dangerous, but they were here way before us, so we should respect them and their space. If an alligator bites or hurts someone, it’s usually because they decided to go up and try to pet it or ride or whatever. Or they ignored signs saying not to swim in waters where gators live.
Image source: whippedcreamcheese, Vish K
#27
Pigeons
Image source: Xycordian, sanjiv nayak
#28
Chihuahuas. They can be a handful when not raised right but if you do a good job training them then they are the absolute biggest sweethearts and loving dogs you could ever hope for. The ones that are trained poorly can be quite annoying and downright aggressive but that isn’t how the properly trained ones behave at all.
Image source: dman2316, nishizuka
#29
Piranhas. Their bloodthirsty reputation was created as part of a PR stunt to make Amazon seem more interesting
Image source: Zanthora, Robert Katzki
#30
Cockroaches. There are over 4,000 species of cockroaches, but only 30 of them are considered pests. This means that approximately 99.2% of cockroach species want nothing to do with human habitats.
Only the pest species spread diseases as well. Non-pest species don’t and have the important job of decomposing organic matter in the environment. Some of them look really cool too, like the Mardi gras cockroach
They’re fairly intelligent creatures for insects as well and are also highly sociable. Aside from the approximately 0.8% of cockroach species that are pests, cockroaches are important creatures to the health of the Earth and are also fairly interesting to study.
Image source: ThoughtCenter87, Erik Karits
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