Is it cruel to keep an Ostrich or a Goat or a Deer as a pet? To keep them in a pen I mean, fenced in to one acre or half an acre for their whole life? I just moved to the country and want to get some exotic pets.
Goats work fine as pets. Better as food.
Bad idea to get a bird that can disembowel you with one kick.
Deer are not domestic animals and don’t do “pet”.
thanks coach
Plus one for the goats.
Not only would a goat make a great pet, they’re also functional.
Yeah, they make you appreciate living next door to a landfill. 
I don’t see much value in them as pets but as far as cruel goes I am not sure. Deer are social animlas. They like to have friends. A friend might be a human or a dog or a goat but they do like company. I think creating a lonely situation for a social animal could be considered cruel.
Does anyone ever refer to Shakes as “Shakes, the great builder”?
Sorry, you lobbed that one right across the plate.
You have a peculiar idea of what is exotic. Goats are one of the most domesticated animals on planet earth, maybe second to the dog. They dont like to be alone, you need a couple goats, or some other herbivore company like sheep or a small pony.
Ostriches are aggressive and dangerous; You can keep deer in pens, but they aren’t friendly and deer can jump a 7 foot fence so if you want to do that I hope you enjoy spending money on fencing.
A couple of weeks ago, a sheep with a Christmas sweater was found wandering around loose in Omaha
Based on your OP, I would say you need to do a shitload of research before acquiring any kind of animal.
This. Keeping any animal in such total ignorance of its needs is cruel.
Including the exact area of pasture. We have two horses in two five acre fields, rotating between them. Too little pasture and you will have a mud bog. Too much and you have to mow.
I wouldn’t recommend either a deer or an ostrich as a pet.
A goat, though - as noted they have been domesticated a long time. Also as noted you wouldn’t want to keep a single goat as they are social herd animals, but goats have been known to buddy up with other species, they’re actually quite gregarious.
However, I agree that you have a LOT of research to do before acquiring any sort of pet, exotic or otherwise.
I note that every one of the animals you named are prey animals - training and disciplining prey animals is very different than predator animals like dogs or cats. It’s the cause of no small heartache for people whose main experience with animals is dogs and cats.
No worse than having a single dog that is kept outside.
“Farming” deer can be done but rarely will one (and you did specify one) act at all pet-like. And as for the bird, the matter of “possible death” had already been mentioned. Stick to the goat unless you are going to get real serious or real commercial.
trying to have a non-domesticated animal as a pet is a recipe for disaster. you can find tame examples of non-domesticated animals, but they’re still pretty much wild and unpredictable. as has been said, ostriches are a bad choice. They’re birds, and birds are universally jerks. They’re also jerks with big sharp claws which can eviscerate you quickly.
Deer, on the other hand, are prey animals and act as such. the instant something frightens them they’ll thrash around and try to get away ASAP. And they can wreck you in the process. Even a tiny deer-like animal like a dik-dik or Royal Antelope will be a skittish, neurotic disaster in captivity.
hell, as a notable example look at Siegfried & Roy. The tigers they used in their act were rather tame, but all it took was for one of them to remember that it was a tiger to nearly kill Roy.
I subscribe to the theory that the tiger than nearly killed Roy didn’t actually intend to kill him, it basically picked him up and nearly killed him by accident. If the tiger had really wanted him dead he would be.
I have parrots. Parrots are not domesticated animals, they are wild animals tamed each generation of captivity. I love the little guys but they are NOT pets in the same way cats and dogs are. Sure, they’re “pets” but they have all their wild instincts and all their wild weaponry. It’s a very different relationship.
I think we’re on the same page. I wasn’t saying the tiger intended to kill him, just that the tiger started being a tiger and Roy suffered for it. Which is what I meant when I said non-domesticated animals are unpredictable and dangerous.
Hell, even domesticated animals like dogs and cats can f your s up if they go off the page.
Looks like other posters have already said most of what I’d say: these three animals have very different needs and are not necessarily suitable as pets, especially for an inexperienced owner.
My advice is to find a club or something where others are already raising these animals. Not only will you have a valuable source of information, but you’ll get some experience to see if they’re really the kind of pets you want.
Also, it’s possible you might have land that other people could use. I know that horse owners are frequently stuck boarding horses on other people’s land. Maybe this is another way to ease into animal ownership.