More Dead in Ohio

There’s a petition circulating in Facebook today urging Ohio Governor John Kasich to permanently ban dangerous exotic animals. Apparently Ohio has some of the weakest exotic pet laws in the nation, which is why some idiot named Terry Thompson was able to stock his 73-acre Muskingum County Animal Farm near Zanesville, Ohio, with 56 lions, bears, monkeys, wolves and other animals – including 18 rare Bengal tigers – and set them loose before committing suicide.

Sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals.

I’m not a supporter of the whole Internet petition thing. Seems real lazy and ineffective to me. If I were an elected official or Grand Poobah of something, I sure wouldn’t be swayed by the fact that a bunch of people sacrificed seven seconds and eleven or twelve keystrokes in order to persuade me on an issue. Send me a letter, for Pete’s sake. At least you had to lick a stamp.

But I agree that keeping exotic, wild animals as pets in backyards and basements is wrong and ought to be illegal. It saddens me that whenever a human “owner” screws up, it’s most often the animal that pays. In this case, Thompson – who just got out of federal prison for illegal guns and had a history of animal cruelty and neglect – isn’t the only person with exotic animal blood on his hands. Politicians and state officials need to explain why Ohio is one of fewer than 10 states that have no rules regulating the sale and ownership of exotic animals.

And why weren’t the animals tranquilized instead of killed? According to one report, “Officers were ordered to kill the animals instead of trying to bring them down with tranquilizers for fear that those hit with darts would escape in the darkness before they dropped and would later regain consciousness.”

Or, as my friend John Mertz said, “Cops like to shoot things.”

Jack Hanna

Television personality Jack Hanna told ABC News that “there was no choice” but to kill 49 animals. “Otherwise, we would have had carnage.” Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, always struck me as kind of a buffoon; his latest prediction doesn’t change my perception.

I’m not convinced that scores of really cool wild animals had to be slaughtered yesterday. And we really didn’t need another example of how ill-served everyone and everything is by those who call the shots.