Plot Synopsis

Millions of exotic animals are brought to the United States each year, and the number of wild-animal attacks against people keep increasing. This three-episode series digs deep to discover what drives people to love wild animals that could hurt them -- even kill them -- by going inside the homes of several people who insist it's worth the risk to share their lives with deadly big cats, chimpanzees and venomous reptiles. In each episode, meet exotic pet owners, animal experts and psychologists who help explore and may explain why owning exotic animals is a gamble worth taking as they try to understand what drives their obsessions. While their love, admiration and intrigue is genuine, these exotic pet owners often ignore the fact that their choice of a pet could cost them, innocent bystanders or their beloved pets their lives. In this series you'll meet: Julie Burros, who owned a full-grown black leopard that tore off part of her scalp and nearly killed her before the police arrived and killed her pet; Jeanne Rizzotto, who owns two young adult male chimpanzees Connor and Kramer even though in February 2009 their half-brother Travis brutally disfigured Charla Nash, causing her to eventually drinks her meals with a straw through a small hole where her mouth used to be; and other who weren't as fortunate -- one man was presumed eaten alive by one of his many monitor lizards and one woman didn't survive the bite of her pet viper. On Friday, January 18, 2013 at 10pm ET, Animal Planet presented the Season 3 premiere of FATAL ATTRACTIONS, featuring the story of Sam Mazzola, who kept bears on his farm in Iowa, charging people to wrestle them -- until a young employee was killed on the job, revealing Sam's destructive lifestyle.