Ohio animal farm......

I am going to be a little vague about this. I live in Ohio so I have been hearing about this all day. I am looking for some opinions from people elsewhere. A man had 50+ wild animals (18 tigers, 17 lions, numerous bears and so on) he opened all of the cages and then killed himself. The sheriffs department has killed all the animals except a monkey. So my question?

Should people be allowed to have these animals?

Perhaps a little closer scrutiny on the individuals in charge of these animals might be in order.

On another matter, did you get out on a low cost lion hunt in your back yard?

I was wondering if anyone new the minimum calibre for hunting DG in ohio?

On another note about 2 percent of the world tiger population was killed today within 24 hours.

This sad story was spread even in the German news today...

My two cents:
You can never prevent things like this from happening. Here in Germany we have one of the most restricting weapon and hunting rights, but still we have the occasional lost soul running amok...
You'll never know what's going on in one's mind, just like the farm owner's.

And for me it is pretty much the same if the innocent victims are humans or animals.
I cannot judge if there hadn't been any chance to capture the animals, at least some of them, with a narcotic bullet or whatever.

It only makes me sad.

Just looked up the story on the NBC website. Very sad set of circumstances. Shame to loose such majestic animals.

The sheriff who made the call to shoot the animals has already come under fire himself.

Just wandering where all those bunny huggers were at the time? No doubt we will see them on the media full of condemnation and opinions. All after the fact.

Just leave the last lion out for the huggers to capture by hand.

Zabi I have to agree it very sad all round.

Now that I have a little more time......I find theses animal farms are no worse than a zoo. Some charge for entrance come don't. We as humans have been trying to tame animals since our first existance. Kids pick up a turtle they find in the woods and want to take it home for a pet. They keep it for a while....and then they tire of them. Now what?

People like this guy in Ohio take these animals on.....its expensive! A pride of lions (8 or so, maybe more.) Need 500 lbs a week of meat. That's 1500 lbs a week in meat for the cats he took care of(just the lions). We as humans are the problem(what else is new) we have taken these animals from their homes and expect them to live with us....act in our movies.....than cry when we shoot them because the wild animal has escaped. It's like King Kong!

Finally this guy was a criminal. Had been arrested time and time again for animal abuse. He just recently got out of prison from his last stint. He should not have had any of those animals. This is where we need tuffer laws. Theses animals should not be in back yards! If you want to see a lion, go to Africa. If you want to see a grizzly, go to Alaska. If you want to see a tiger, go to India.

Ok done for now.

Originally Posted by Zabi

I cannot judge if there hadn't been any chance to capture the animals, at least some of them, with a narcotic bullet or whatever.

It only makes me sad.

Some people tried darting the animals. Some representatives from the Columbus zoo where on hand. One story that I keep hearing is of a tiger that was shot with a dart. It them charged the people then went off twards the woods. A sheriff afraid it would get away, shot and killed it.

I know the sheriffs office had no choice. The animals had to be put down. If one of them got to a local resident or a small kid....everyone would be yelling at them for not shooting on sight....damned if you do....damned if you dont!

Rick, you are right, absoluty.
And I know how difficult the choice of the right dose of narcotics on a wild and upset animal is (once saw that with a buffalo in a zoo, needed three doses instead of one), but nearly 50 animals and not a single one saved?

The other thought that crosses my mind is: did the farm owner open the gates so that the animals don't die of starvation when he is not there anymore, or was it a kind of revenge for the troubles he had?

This story has a lot of dark facettes. I'm not sure I really want to know.

I was just watching our local news and story has made it to Australia. Apparently the owner let all the animals go in revenge to his neighbors. It also appears that he had a extensive criminal record including cruelty to animals.

Also as I predicted earlier the greenies are outraged with the outcome but did nothing to help at the time.

Similiar incidents have happened in Ohio at least twice that I can recall, albeit without the sad aspect of an associated suicide.

In the early 1980s a Zanesville Ohio game ranch was ordered by the courts to drop his fences within 24 hours. He had a full 1000 acre block of land fenced for exotic game hunting. This game farm held sustainable herds of various goats and sheep as well as numerous species of wild boar. All were released into the local forests by order of the sherrif and courts. An estimated 14 black bears, 20+ elk, and lesser numbers of other hooved game were also released at that time. It served to jumpstart the reintroduction of several species long missing from Ohios forests.

In the mid 1990s another game farm was forced to release his stock of exotic species from the "unlawful" capture by the courts. Over 120 head of African game was released along the Ohio river into the state and federal forests his game farm bordered.

Both incidents served to inject a great deal of foreign DNA into the biology of the Ohio forests.

Given the rarity of this type of thing, I doubt more regulation is needed( on the evening news, they said most states require either a federal or state license to keep exotics. Some require both) However, it was known that his animals were in bad condition and why nothing was done about is beyond me.
As for how the situation was handled, I say they did right. 40-odd dangerous animals is just too many to waste time messing around with tranq-guns. Although, they did manage to bring a few (I think 6) in alive.

It truly is a shame! I would like to think they could have tranquilized a few more. It would be nice to say you shot 1/2 of the big 5 in Ohio! saves the long trip! If a person is going to commit suicide - you can't really stop them & whatever they do usually has consequences!