There will always be vain, obsessive people who want to own rare and extraordinary things whatever the cost there will always be people for whom owning beautiful, dangerous animals brings a sense of power and magic.

Orlean is describing a recurring human impulse: the desire to possess rarity as a form of status and self-definition. The quote links acquisitiveness (“own rare and extraordinary things whatever the cost”) with a more primal fantasy of dominion—keeping “beautiful, dangerous animals” to feel “power and magic.” It suggests that such ownership is less about appreciation than about control, spectacle, and the thrill of proximity to danger. Implicitly, it also critiques the ethical blindness that can accompany obsession: the “cost” may include harm to animals, ecosystems, or other people, yet the owner’s sense of enchantment overrides those consequences.