tonight on "nightline" -- tigers next door. thousands of exotic and dangerous animals are turning america's backyards into minijungles. meet the guy who knows where many of them are. and which ones might escape. hip-hop humanitarian. how can he stay bad when he's doing so much good. we go with rapper 50 cent on a remarkable journey to the most dangerous place he's ever been. plus, the oscar goes to -- the cryer. or the kisser. or maybe the foul mouth. >> it's so [ bleep ]. oops. >> a look at the famous highs and lows of acceptance speeches.

and what to watch for this sunday. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline." february 24th, 2012. good evening. i'm juju chang. tonight, we begin with exotic and dangerous animals, that might be lurking in a backyard near you. they're kept as pets by people who don't seem to mind what the neighbors think. with recent headlines about brutal animal attacks and lions and tigers and bears on the loose, we meet the guy who makes it his job to keep those predators caged and your town safe. his business, wild animal insurance. here's abc's matt gutman for our series, "american jungle." >> reporter: cute. but deadly. this might look like a zoo. but it's actually someone's backyard. these guys are closer than you think, living as pets, right

next door. >> okay. >> reporter: a rash of recent attacks and scares by exotic animals. >> there's a lion on mt. perry road and crenshaw. >> i just seen one. looks like a jaguar or a wolf or something. >> reporter: in zanesville, ohio, in october, more than 50 dangerous animals unleashed by their owner. scampering out on the roadways. odessa, texas, the same month, a 4-year-old boy mauled by this 150-pound cougar. in connecticut, a woman kept travis, the chimp, for years. and then, this. >> what's the problem there? >> the -- the chimp killed my -- my friend. >> reporter: he'd grown too big and uncontrollable. >> this has been going on for years and years and years. there's a long and growing casualty list of people who have been injured or killed by dangerous wild animals kept as pets. >> reporter: but out of all of this animal mayhem across the

nation, someone has gotten very busy. >> good to see you. thank you. >> reporter: where you sense fear, mitch kalmanson sees risk and potential lawsuits. >> they're exotic animals. she can be nice one minute and turn around the next minute and be as exotic as she is. >> reporter: where you see tigers, he spies potentially loose fencing. >> any problems with loosening? >> they're all welded? >> good. >> reporter: mitch ckalmanson i the wild insurance guy. >> i have zoological facilities. private facilities. >> reporter: and a lot of people have interest. so much so, that according to the world wildlife fund, there are more tigers in the u.s., living in captivity, than in the wild across the world.

c calmanson is the first to admit they don't necessarily make good pets. >> you think they're cute and cuddly. and they can turn within seconds. >> reporter: and with incidents like zanesville, ohio, that becomes a problem. >> we had marginal caging. and most looked like dog cages that were converted to put a tiger in. >> reporter: should people be worried? >> if nothing else, the locals, the sheriff's department, the county commissioner, the city commissioner, should know who's in their area. >> reporter: the cobra next door is something people should know about? >> absolutely. >> reporter: while they may be bad for neighbors, they've been good for kalmanson's business. on a standard $300 policy -- that's serious money. >> that's what people have to

commit to. >> reporter: surprisingly, only a dozen states require owners of exotic pets to carry liability insurance. but even at the places kalmanson does insure, where he makes house call inspections, he finds problems. >> the animals gone. and at 2:00 in the morning, you don't know when until 6:00 or 7:00, when you're back in the field. >> reporter: when you go on inspections, do you find that people are way in over their head? >> a lot of people do. they want the animal. they want the baby. they want to have a tiger, leopard, et cetera. and i don't think they take enough safeguards to preserve the animal and do it right. >> reporter: kalmanson owns 27 lions and tigers, pacing back and forth all night long. his own florida ranch, shows us what we're looking at. that potentially dangerous mix of safari and suburbia. and just across the street, 700 homes and a golf course.

>> galvanized pipe. we have cables coming across. metal bars coming across. >> reporter: what's the range of costs of these cages? >> you can put a cage up over a weekend, $5,000. >> reporter: per cage? per animal? >> yeah. >> reporter: cash is often the most significant barrier to safety. most owners of these so-called safety are animal broke, buying the animals when they're young, cute and small. but before you know it, they're big, expensive and can be deadly. there's no denying the allure. cuddling up to an animal with such awesome power and undeniable charm. >> that means he's feeling very comfortable. >> reporter: but quickly we found, kalmanson's maxim to be true. these animals may be trained. but they are not tame. for "nightline," i'm matt gutman, in florida. >> that is wild. our thanks to matt. and just ahead, we tell you why hip-hop star 50 cent is

rapping with this group of refugees. >> go, shorty. it's your birthday. we're going to party like it's your birthday. with a selec-terrain dial that adjusts the jeep grand cherokee's performance for specific weather and road conditions, even heavy snowstorms won't keep you from getting to work... our apologies. that's why there's crest pro-health clinical gum protection. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. crest pro-health clinical gum protection.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues, from new york city, with juju chang. we've gotten used to seeing bono or jiang lena jolie globetrotting on trips. but 50 cent? looks like the lewd and crude rapper has the been doing a lot of good for the world food program. so, they invited him to a refugee camp in somalia, the most lawless country in the world. can being a do-gooder cramp his bad boy style?

here's abc's dan harris. ♪ go, shorty >> reporter: 50 cent, a.k.a., curtis jackson, is best known about bedding women, drinking champagne. and getting shot nine times, as dramatized in the movie, "get rich or die trying," which turned his rise from crack dealer to number two on the "forbes" list of richest black entertainers. so, what is this man doing at this security briefing? >> a very tense situation. >> reporter: about to head into a place even more dangerous than where he came from. somalia, on a humanitarian mission. >> kidnapping being threat number one. >> reporter: after our security briefing, 50 claims not to be nervous at all. >> going to the briefing, it's pretty dangerous. but we don't get briefing from the environment i come from. and it can be dangerous there also. >> reporter: we were flying in with the united nations world food program. >> let's do this. >> reporter: to which 50 cent

has become a large and unlikely donor. he's launched a new line of energy drinks, called street king. >> oh. >> reporter: 10 cents of every bottle sold will go towards feeding children all over the world. >> i want to feed a billion hungry people. let's do this. >> reporter: he's already provided 3.5 million feels. but this would be the first time he would actually go to a refugee camp where that desperately-needed money is being used to save people. and as we flew in, it became clear that this was a bad boy rapper with an identity crisis. >> i want to be more. not just as an artist, but as a person. to my legacy. what's left behind. i don't want to be a guy who's just remembered for writing a few cool songs. >> reporter: you've got a lot of money. so, it seems to me, you're thinking to yourself, how do i make my life meaningful? >> right. exactly that. >> reporter: we landed and were quickly loaded into a convoy,

led by a truck filled with armed men. somalia is a land of al qaeda, piracy and famine. all you need is 30 seconds on the ground here to see how inhospitable this terrain is to any sort of person. we arrive at a jeffrey camp, filled with women and children, who ma had walked to for weeks, to escape war. as they extend their frail arms, this rapper who sold drugs at age 12, on the mean streets of south jamaica queens, who never knew his father and his mother, who was also a drug dealer, was murdered when just a child, was at an utter loss for words. what's the impression it makes on you? >> i never seen that before. >> reporter: it struck me as i

watched 50 cent peer into a makeshift hut. and interact with schoolchildren who only a get one meal a day, that this man, whose lyrics were so sexist and violent, that the u.n. initially didn't want to take his money, is in real life, very different than his public image. this house is crazy. i had interviewed 50 once before. so, i knew he never drank or smoked. that he medicated with deepak chopra. owned a four-pound dog named oprah that he liked to dress up. and that he rattled around all by himself in a mansion in connecticut. do you work all the time? >> pretty much. >> reporter: what about your personal life? >> i really don't have very much. >> reporter: but even if his bad boy baller image seems like a little bit of a front, he freely admits that images of him on this do-gooder mission could further alienate his core audience. some of your song lyrics are about being strong, being tough. that it's a cold world. >> yeah. >> reporter: how does that jive with what you're doing here for

these kids? >> it doesn't matter at all. it doesn't matter. this is, like, the next chapter of my life. i don't care if my audience is prepared to move forward with me. they may not necessarily be growing at the same pace. >> reporter: it is a tricky transition, truly uncharted territory. a first step towards being what his manager calls the hip-hop bono. to get a sense of how tricky, look at what happened when we visited a school where the kids knew 50's music very well. are you fans of 50 cent? yeah. but they couldn't get him to sing with them. it was an uncomfortable moment. >> sing one song. >> i can't sing a song. >> sing any. >> i don't want to sing a song. >> you're afraid. >> they're all looking at me. one time. putting all this pressure on me. i can't sing the song now. >> you're afraid? >> yeah. a little bit. a little bit.

>> reporter: why didn't you want to sing? >> for one, i have a lot of material that i make, nothing is -- didn't feel appropriate for that setting. >> reporter: because if you sang "in da club," about six words in, there's an f-bomb. >> that's right. boom. going to land hard out here. >> reporter: it struck me when i was watching it, despite all the things you do, you are a little shy. >> i am. >> reporter: the education of 50 cent, the battle for this rapper's soul, is a fascinating spectacle to behold. by the way, he did end up singing a little bit with those kids. >> go, shorty. it's your birthday. we're going to party like it's your birthday. >> reporter: and they loved it. for "nightline," this s is dan harris, in somalia. >> that hip-hop star in search of meaning. our thanks to dan. up next, the academy awards will be handed out sunday night. but will anybody top this bold acceptance? ♪

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ah, the oscar acceptance speech. we've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. and the weird and the awkward and the hysterical. tonight, abc's nick watt brings us the academy award's most memorable moment. and makes his spot-on predictions for this sunday. >> and the oscar goes to. >> and the oscar goes to. >> and the oscar goes to. >> and the losers aren't -- >> reporter: how to claim an oscar. >> ben affleck and matt damon. >> reporter: jubilation. >> thank you, thank you so much. >> reporter: tears. >> my mother, who -- >> reporter: if you're marlon brando, you are send little

father. >> he cannot accept this very generous award. >> reporter: that was weird. so, how should one accept an award in front of hundreds of millions of tv viewers? >> either you have to have style or you have to have substance. >> reporter: veteran oscar watcher and hollywood insider, sharon waxman, makes it sound easy. >> actors should be shooting to make that moment memorable. >> reporter: memorable, but for the right reasons. first up, no f-bombs. >> it looked so [ bleep ] easy. >> adrien brody. >> reporter: we know you're excited. but don't get too fresh. >> i'm in shock. and i'm so in love with my brother right now. >> reporter: keep some stuff to yourself. >> you like me. >> reporter: neediness can be sweet. >> james cameron. >> reporter: humility is nice, james? >> i'm the king of the world. woo. >> reporter: thank the right people.

mention the director. >> my makeup man. >> reporter: mention the director. >> my hairdresser. my assistant. >> i want to thank the academy. to their films, john hart, jeff sharp. >> that's a problem. hilary swank far got to thank her husband. >> i brought this piece of paper. i knew i couldn't forget anyone. >> reporter: if i was a betting man, here's where i'd put my money. most likely to give us that jack palance or roberto benigni awesome oscar moment, has to be the french dudes from "the artist." >> "the artist" is a very unusual movie. it's a silent film. and you have french people trying to speak english. >> reporter: most boring? >> i'm not going there. i know too many people. >> reporter: and if they play that music to shut you up. >> i just want to -- here we go. i love you. and cameron crow. and tom cruise. i love you, brother. >> reporter: they just carry on.

you won an oscar. you're awesome. >> you did a great job when we made the movie. >> reporter: i'm nick watt, for "nightline," in london. >> thank you. thank you. >> give the man more time. he just won an oscar. our thanks to nick. you can catch the academy awards sunday night right here on abc. after the show, don't forget to tune in for an oscar tradition, jimmy kimmel's post awards special. and this year, he's got oprah, like you've never seen her before. we got a sneak peek behind the scenes. >> i think we know oprah has a sense of humor. but i don't know if we've seen her go quite this far before. >> ever. i'm completely out of my box. this is called, living out of your comfort zone. >> oprah lives in a box. it's really sad. things have gone south since the show went off the air. >> and you can see all of jimmy kimmel's special with oprah and oscar's brightest stars on "jimmy kimmel live: after the academy awards" on sunday.