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Wild Animals Loose... (local news)
Apparently there is an animal farm where the owner housed exotic animals such as lions, black bears, wolves, cheetahs, etc. The fence was left opened and now they are running loose around Interstate 70 in central/east Ohio- Zanesville is about 40 minutes from where we live.
News story is still unfolding, but I am just dumbfounded. First, is that even legal to have those animals? Second, the owner was just released from prison and was now found dead on his property- presumably from the animals. Seems fishy. The current count is somewhere around 48 animals missing and "they aren't sure how much of a head start the animals got." So basically, they're telling people to stay indoors, keep your pets inside, etc.
Crazy!
News story here, though there aren't many details yet.
Re: Wild Animals Loose... (local news)
Oh geez! Can you imagine looking out your window and seeing a freakin' lion walking down your street?!
I am disgusted. They're killing them on sight.
From the dispatch:
Lutz said the deputies saw a number of animals standing outside their cages and others that had escaped beyond a surrounding fence. Deputies, he said, immediately began shooting animals.
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That's awful, and that guy should be in prison. Open up the friggin cage and let them in. That seriously pisses me off way more than the guy who had the caged animals in the first place (yes, yes, cause and effect).
They way it reads, it does sound like the Zoo and The Wilds (an exotic animal safari type place) were shoved aside while some back country police department did some free range shooting. WTH! And the writer says all this with such compassion, HA!
Who in their right mind thought it would be okay to shoot these animals. That disturbs me so much, they act as if they were mauling people (which I didn't read anything about). How tragic. Hopefully the remaining can be rescued.
Yea, this just disgusts me! WTF? It's one thing if they were about to be attacked, but this says they were just standing there! I know at least the Columbus Zoo had people on their way to assist. I read this article this morning from the Cincinnati news website. It says something about them being wild animals and such, but that doesn't mean they are rabid and will attack anything they can.
I cannot believe they are shotting the animals when the zoos are nearby trying to help and capture them!
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The owner was found dead on the grounds. Last I looked, not sure how he died...some speculate that he let the animals out of their cages then took his own life because he has a history of problems with the treatment of the animals.
ETA: Nevermind...I reread what you wrote and you weren't talking about the owner
Yes, apparently the owner let the animals out and took his own life.
I'm also pretty ticked at the shooting on sight mentality. Animals can be tranquilized, I could only understand shooting on sight if the animal is the process of mauling a person. Poor things, they can't help it they weren't properly cared for at the end of the guy's life...
I was horrified to learn that they were killing animals onsite. But then found the following quote from Jack Hanna himself:
TV animal expert Jack Hanna, who is the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, said on ABC's "Good Morning, America" that "You cannot tranquilize an animal like this, a bear or a leopard or a tiger [at night]. If you do that, the animal gets very excited, it goes and hides, and then we have [Lutz's] officer
in danger of losing their life, and other people," he said.
I still feel awful that innocent animals were killed because of an owner's negligence/failure to take care of the animals.
I do think that the other problem that they had with regards to tranquilizing is that they had officers who were called out to the scene initially who were witness to the animals escaping. These officers aren't equipped with tranquilizers and in the heat of the moment, rather than let a lion take off, they acted quickly and took its life.
I think that the big issue is that law's in Ohio are way too lax on exotic animals. How crazy is it that a convicted felon is able to house 48 wild animals?
As an Ohioian I don't have the first clue about how to go out and buy myself one of these animals - - I wanna know how Mr. felon figures that out, and I can't?
Off to google search.
I'm so getting Zac a tiger.