Wednesday morning was just a normal day right?
Wrong. I awoke to the news of Bengal tigers roaming rural Ohio. Sure, I didn’t see a leopard on Middle Path, but knowing that they were only about an hour away was an added thrill to the day.
And then I got back to my room and read about the fate of these almost 50 exotic pets. None of the Zanesville deputies had any tranquilizers to subdue the animals. Though the director of the Columbus Zoo arrived with a team late Tuesday afternoon, they only had four tranquilizer guns. As night fell, the Zanesville sheriff’s department made the decision to kill the animals rather than risk them running in the dark throughout the county. Among the list of killed animals were 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, and bears.
At first I was tempted to blame the sheriff for choosing to shoot the animals rather than tranquilize them, but the real problem is the ownership of the exotic pets. Why was this man allowed to keep so many exotic pets after repeated legal issues with owning the animals? If he could have a tiger, it feels as though pretty much anyone could own a tiger in Ohio. On Friday, current governor John Kasich ordered a Department of Natural Resources task force to give him a report on registering non-native species (currently, Ohio has no law requiring owners to register exotic animals). Why not just put a stop to private ownership of animals that are dangerous and endangered? Give them a break. They already have to deal with living in zoos.
Sources:
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-19/us/us_ohio-animals-on-loose_1_exotic-…
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-10-21/Ohio-exotic-animals…