If someone told you that they owned an exotic pet, what would you think they meant? A bird? A snake? An illegal big cat? For @kcalbug, aka Amelia, think again. Although Amelia’s Twitter bio states that she’s an “exotic pet lover,” her definition of “pet” might be a little different than yours.


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Amelia is the proud owner of pet leeches, which she allows to feed off of her arm for hours at a time. “It’s completely safe because these are not wild leeches,” she said. “Leeches release a kind of numbing agent, so there’s only a bit of discomfort.”




But understandably, much of the rest of the internet has a hard time wrapping their head around caring for a blood-sucking parasitic worm. Especially upon learning that leech feeding points can bleed for up to 10 hours after they’re done sucking.


“We've normalized too much,” @phollowmeputa said.



But despite the negativity, Amelia loves her leeches and has purchased much larger buffalo leeches that are on their way. To each their own I suppose, but this is a trend I’d rather not see other creators leeching off of…