In Zanesville, Ohio 49 exotic animals were shot and killed by deputies. On October 18, 2011, a local farm-owner, Terry Thompson, committed suicide, releasing his wild animals.Thompson had cut open wires of the gates to ensure that the animals could not be locked up again, before killing himself. Some of the wild animals set free were lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, and wolves.
After a reported number of 911 calls, Ohio police set out to find the wild animals to protect public safety. When police found the wild animals, they had no choice but to shoot the animals because they did not have tranquilizer guns on hand. When officials with tranquilizer guns arrived the only one animal was left."We just had a huge tiger, an adult tiger, estimated at 300 pounds, that was very aggressive," says one of the officials.
Shooting of the rare animals led to several protests and public outrage. 49 of the 56 animals were killed, including 18 tigers. While the public remains outraged, officials believe they did the right thing, keeping in mind public safety. One of the sheriff justified himself by saying "we could not have animals running loose in this county."
Apparently keeping wild animals in Ohio is not a rare thing. Ohio doesn't have any restrictions against ownership of exotic and wild animals. Local people in Ohio are able to buy exotic animals from other breeders and auctions.
This article caught my attention because it is one that I came across before. It interests me that someone finds this story as interesting and disturbing as me. It is relevant because rare animals in our world were killed in mass amounts, so viciously. This would be a good piece for a news article because such events are not widespread. Also, I did know know that people were harvesting animals in their homes. This article can effect people into making sure this does not happen anymore.
ReplyDeleteThis is disturbing and sort of upsetting to me. Why were the animals locked up in a cage in the first place? Why the need to shoot them down? If you get a 911 call saying there are a bunch of tigers on the loose, first thing you do is getting your hands on tranquilizer guns.
ReplyDeleteThis is relevant to me because I love animals, and I found it very upseting how they are treated by some people.
This could be made into an article to increase awareness on how little respect many poeple have for animals