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apbt vs wild animals???

4K views 27 replies 12 participants last post by  Mach0 
#1 ·
For a while in ohio you could only own one pitbull per household, but you can own as many wild animals as you want... A couple of days ago a man let his wild animals loose then took his own life. It was like 50 to 70 wild animals ( wolves, lions, tigers, bears, monkeys) and he did this at night time. But they wanna ban pitbulls, sounds backwards to me
 
#2 ·
I just saw a billboard about that on fb
 
#3 ·
WOW thats crazy. We have people up here who own tigers and lions and such . A lady was killed a few years back while out feeding her tigers they mauled her infront of her young kids out in the woods where 911 doesnt help too much or atleast fast enough. They dont require nothing from these people who own these animals and alot of time they are unregulated as far as checking enclosures to see they are up to par. They require zoos to have regulations and standards for there enclosures but none for the average person with these animals. Alot of the times neighbors and those living close dont evenknow these animals are there. Very scary and good reason why these animals shouldnt be allowed to be owned by anyone other then a zoo.
 
#5 ·
BSL is BULL :poop: .. :flush: nuff said.

Owning wild animals is a freedom enjoyed by communists and enslaved people all around the world .. so why would a country of freedoms be ruled by regulation and control? What happen to land of the free?

As far as OWNING wild animals. They're all dying out and will be killed out unless domesticated as through out the world lions, tigers, leopards, etc wander in through out towns, villages, and cities as coyotes and deer do here in the USA. We are takin over their habitat and calling it "right of way" LOL .. domesticate or they will die, in the large picture of it all.
 
#6 ·
:goodpost::goodpost: Can't give you any rep right now, have to spread the love but excellent post and i agree 100%.

Only so much land clearing humans can do before we (as a whole) realize..oh wait..now what? :hammer:

Theres a lady that lives off 95 in between Florence and the GA state line that does rehab work with exotics and big cats. Once fully functional is then re-homed to either a Zoo or back to the wild in respected regions depending on level of function, dependency, etc. Never been to her facility and only spoken with her twice.. Do know last time i bumped into her she was talking about how government regulations, restrictions on a world wide scale is giving her wall after wall..the run around.. Pretty soon she might not be able to continue her work, unfortunate for those doing it for the proper reasons..

Owning just to say you own one of these animals is beyond stupidity. These fine animals need to be preserved, not continuously pushed into new foreign regions...and they wonder why attacks in Africa are on the rise? Cant cure :hammer:
 
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#9 ·
Thats probly true, but if my pitbull got on the loose they would kill it without thinking bout it. The only reason they killed his animals is because it was dark and they said if they trainqed them bout time they found them the trainq wud hav worn off. One bad apple spoiles the bunch rite.
 
#12 ·
The reason they killed the animals is because they had no preparation or training for effectively capturing them without injury to the animals or themselves. It's hard to tranq a moving wild animal in the right spot, it takes 8 minutes for full effect, and they didn't even have enough tranq guns.

Yeah, it sucks they had to kill the animals, but they were all likely inbred out the wazoo and wouldn't have been accepted in zoos and + there was public safety to think about.

And he let them go, what if they would hav got to people??
He committed suicide after letting them go. I don't think he was too concerned about the "what ifs" involved in setting them free.
 
#13 ·
The reason they killed the animals is because they had no preparation or training for effectively capturing them without injury to the animals or themselves. It's hard to tranq a moving wild animal in the right spot, it takes 8 minutes for full effect, and they didn't even have enough tranq guns.

Yeah, it sucks they had to kill the animall, but they were all likely inbred out the wazoo and wouldn't have been accepted in zoos and + there was public safety to think about.

He committed suicide after letting them go. I don't think he was too concerned about the "what ifs" involved in setting them free.
Not concerned at all!!!
 
#14 ·
why wouldn't they have been accepted into any zoos? the animals that they did catch were already accepted into the columbus zoo. i can't believe they shot and killed 18 bengal tigers. makes me sick to my stomach. yeah i also think its messed up they have virtually no laws as far as exotic animals go, but i even read a part from an article where it said that a veterinarian had tranquilized a tiger and when it started to run away, the police shot and killed it. imo, the police just want to shoot and kill things and are bullcrap. the whole situation sucks. RIP to the animals that were killed.
 
#16 ·
I agree! In regards to the zoo's I think they needed to have enough room to separate them for 6 months to make sure no rabies or other diseases are present. Transporting and the space to Quarantine, the funds to get them to the other zoo, not being prepared has a huge amount to do with it. Since night was falling they had no choice since they are not immediately asleep, they had to shoot to kill.
 
#15 ·
Yeah I heard the guy killed his chicken and them himself in hopes of getting eaten, people are whack. I agree, its total BS that they ban some dogs but have no enforced limits on wildlife. You can't regulate stupid and the people who are going to do it, will do it regardless of laws. I do think because of the amount of stupid people there should be laws about wild animals though. I know regulation sucks but so don't stupid people who have 18 Bengal tigers, bears, monkeys and other cats in his home.

Just suck he was so selfish. he had just gotten back form jail so someone was taking care of his animals when he was gone, why not kill himself and leave the animals alone. or kill himself in a cage with them, so sad what he did to them.
 
#19 ·
i hope some make it into the wild of the USA..

For a long time there have been panther and not the nick name for mt. lion either, in the deep south. There have been lion in Oklahoma and Tx for a while as well NOT LARGE pop but enough they are seen as ghosts from time to time since 1889 .. barnum and bailey ringling bros and so forth. back then all sorts of critters got loose. there are japanese snow monkies living and thriving in TX as well.

ITS LIKE THIS>.. IF THE SYSTEM and or JUDICIAL SYSTEM BLAME people for ignorance and NOT knowing what to do, then WELL .. OFFICIALS TRAINED AND EDUCATED TO THINK FAST should DEFINITELY BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR IGNORANCE AND ACTING OUT OF IRRATIONAL FEAR> why did they not just tell the two lock up and escort children to safety and call JACK HANNA .. he showed up on his OWN and his words ARE ALL POLITICAL because LAW ENFORCMENT NEVER makes mistakes.

I dont know, im partial to wild critters, I used to have wolves/ wolfdogs and have caught and raised all kinds of wild critters and released them such as falcons owls and deer. I hunt predators so other than wolves and a coyote or two nothing there. Even wolves and wild cats from zoos are going to avoid people and try to get into the wild unless hungry or scared and looking for people for support, cause they are imprinted on humans.

again.. 100% fault of ignorance on all parties involved.
 
#20 · (Edited)
My friend wrote this up the other day after the incident. I agree with most of it.



Allow me to babble on about emergency preparedness and response for a little while, because it is fascinating to me and I want to write down my thoughts.

Yesterday, 49 large exotic animals (big cats, bears,wolves) were set loose in the area around Zanesville, OH. Their owner, a man who had been running the "Muskingum County Animal Farm", allegedly set the animals free before committing suicide. Numerous complaints had been made and investigated at this location, and the man, Terry Thompson, had several animal abuse/neglect charges against him. Despite these charges, the facility remained in operation. After being set free, the animals roamed around the Zanesville area near major roadways and residences. At least 49 were shot by law enforcement officers.

A lot of my friends are outraged about this incident, as am I. However, I think it's important to direct the outrage at the person responsible - Terry Thompson. He owned these animals, he cared for them improperly, and he deliberately set them free instead of placing them in proper facilities. Yes, he had multiple animal-related charges against him and complaints had been made about his facility. It's frustrating that he was not shut down before this event, but I think that this only highlights the importance of stricter laws and greater prosecution of animal law violations. We live in a culture in which animals are property. Even severe abuse charges (for example, many incidents of horrific abuse of pit bulls) are not punished very severely, as the existing laws are just too weak. The punishments are fines and maybe some jail time, if the prosecution proves their case, which can be difficult - ownership of an animal can be difficult to establish, there may be no witnesses to the cruelty, the physical evidence may not be substantial, and so on. There is usually little support or resources for pursuing these kinds of cases. Very few cases receive much public attention, and this attention usually dies off by the time the case goes to court.

In addition to these sad facts, most animal control departments are in dire financial straits - actually, this is true of many law enforcement organizations, period. Police departments around the country have faced continuous layoffs over the past several years. Despite massive increases in "homeland security" funding, we currently have at least 3,000 fewer police officers than on 9/11, 2001. Many smaller departments are understaffed to the point that officers are actually in danger because they lack backup or they are working crazy overtime (which pays well but has terrible health consequences - officers retire and drop dead - and also impacts response time and cognitive skills). Even if the departments were fully staffed, their training in NO way prepares them for something like this, and why would it? Police training is not ideal. They tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time on skills that many officers will never actually need but that suit the police mentality - use of firearms, combat tactics, car chases, running obstacle courses, etc. They don't spend nearly enough time on skills they need every day, like conflict resolution, counselling victims, things like that. What sort of training would prepare an officer for a massive release of large, dangerous animals? Many of the officers may have never even SEEN one of these animals outside of a television screen, let alone be faced by one in the "suburban jungle."

Which brings me to my thoughts on how officers might have responded. Let's think about logistics here. People are upset that the animals were shot - I am, too, but not because I think that was an inappropriate response. I'm upset that the animals were ever in that situation at all. Let's think about how we might have handled the situation in an ideal world...

You're the police chief in Zanesville, OH. Let's Google the department website and see how many officers you have... In 2000, the population was just over 25,000 people. The Zanesville PD website says you have 56 officers, and that would be split into at least two or three shifts - most likely three, so that gives you 19 officers on duty at the time. Your officers carry firearms, but they're most likely pistols. You probably have some long-range weapons available... maybe. Okay, so it's a Wednesday afternoon and you've got 19 cops on duty. Your other cops are on days off, sleeping, or with their families. You get a call that someone has let a crap load* of animals loose on your town. What do you do?

Your immediate concern is public safety - that is, after all, the mission of your department. You don't know how aggressive or dangerous these animals are, but they seem to be mostly large carnivores, and that's a big concern. School might be out soon, so you're going to have a bunch of kids coming home. You probably have people in their yards or going about their business in shopping areas. You need to act NOW. You are in no way prepared for something like this - the nearest AZA zoo is in Columbus, OH, 61 miles away. You alert your officers in the field and let them know that public safety comes first, if they encounter an animal, it needs to be stopped.

You would probably prefer NOT to kill all these animals - maybe you like animals yourself, or maybe you're just concerned about bad PR. You try to think of a way to bring the animals in safely. Tranquilizer guns! Okay, who has tranquilizer guns? The zoo in Columbus probably has some, right? Reports say that there were maybe 4 guns available and not nearly enough darts for the 50-something officers who arrived to help. Let's pretend that we did have enough tranq guns and darts, though - who's going to tranq the animals? As wikith (a vet!) pointed out, it's not like in the movies. Tranquing animals is HARD - Jack Hanna agrees. They're moving, possibly even towards you, and you have to get the dart into muscle. Even if you do, it's not like the animal stumbles and drops immediately. No, it's angry and scared, pretty much the worst combination in a large, dangerous animal you could face. Even if you successfully tranq it, then what? The animal goes down and you need to approach it to make sure it's down and to secure it for transport - you can't just leave it there, it's going to eventually wake up! Who approaches it? Who can be sure the animal is really down? If you make a mistake, you could be dead. As a police officer, do you even know how to tell if an animal is really out and safe to approach?

Let's imagine the animal is safely tranq'd and ready for transport. How the hell are you going to get it out of here? You can't throw it in the back of your Crown Vic and take it to the police station. Do you have secure crates for 49 BIG animals? A dog crate won't do - you need a secure, heavy-duty, metal transport crate for a 200-300lb animal that might wake up in transport and be PISSED. Where are you going to get those, and how long will they take to arrive? And once they do arrive, where are you going? The jail isn't going to work. You're going to need separate cages for each animal, because who knows if they all get along. The local shelter is probably full of dogs and cats and not safe for large animals, anyway.

Even if you did have somewhere to take the animals, then what? They're all going to need feeding and medical attention in the next 24 hours. You're going to need staff who know how to handle animals of this size and temperament - people willing to work with them and around them for however long it takes to find placements for all of them. And placements where? When zoos are expecting a new animal, they spend months preparing an exhibit and getting ready for the animal's arrival. You have 49 large, needs-intensive and unexpected animals on your hands - who's going to take them? Many of them are likely solitary creatures who would not usually live with another animal. Even if they are animals that can be kept together, you have no idea what they've experienced - maybe they've been kept in isolation and don't know how to relate to their own kind. If you owned a zoo, would you say "Sure, we'll add some lions to our collection?" Hell no. Your zoo lions are worth hundreds of thousands of collars, maybe they're part of a captive breeding program - you can't just throw some extra lions in there and call it good. And nobody knows what kind of diseases these animals might have - they probably need to be quarantined so some vet work can be done.

Even if you COULD find zoos to take them here in the US or abroad, you then need to transport the animals. Who's going to pay for this? Again, you face the issue of getting proper containers and vehicles and preparing the animals for transport. Some of them will probably need to be flown - who's going to organize that? As I mentioned, police departments are already cash-strapped - who the crap* is going to pay for the transport of 49 big animals to their new homes? Should the zoos have to pay, when they're really doing everyone a favor by making space for these animals? And what do we do with them while we all quibble over the bill?

So. While it's definitely tragic that these beautiful animals were killed yesterday, I think it's important to keep this incident in perspective. The local police department was in no way prepared to handle something like this, and if their budget was increased to pay for "large animal escape" training, I bet the local residents would be hollerin'. That's the problem, isn't it? It's easy to look back now and say "We should have been prepared", but preparedness costs MONEY. It's a gamble on something that may never happen but if it does, it could be awful. I don't fault the police department or the officers at all for how they handled this situation. They neutralized a threat to public safety with the resources they had available.

I DO fault Terry Thompson, that self-absorbed blockhead*. These animals are COMPLETELY inappropriate for private owners, and his actions of freeing them all before committing suicide is indefensible. There is absolutely no excuse for it. I also place blame on normal citizens, honestly - continually clamoring for lower taxes means cuts are made to the programs nobody defends, and this usually includes animal control, because people don't appreciate the work animal control departments do every day. Our own local animal control fights to keep its doors open every year because of continued budget cuts - our entire COUNTY would have NO animal control officers if their department was closed. I also blame a culture that treats animals as property and not as sentient beings deserving of protection under the law. I can't go all "animal rights"-y, because meat is delicious, but I do believe we should strengthen laws about animal neglect and abuse, inhumane treatment and what kinds of animals should legally be kept by private individuals - strengthen the laws and give them TEETH. Give police departments and animal control departments the training needed to collect compelling evidence in these cases and get the cases through court, and get some punishments severe enough to actually deter this crap*. Crack down on the SUPPLIERS of these animals - where the heck* did this guy get his hands on lions and tigers? Find the suppliers and kill the flow of exotic animals into anyplace other registered, accredited, well-staffed zoos.

(*edited for language)
 
#21 ·
rules and regulation impeed on freedom.... period. Zoos get their stuff from private conservation efforts many times are men and women with such "farms" In many states what this man had would be considerd a "petting zoo" ..

AGAIN.. Regulate trafficing of animals ??? So I guess we want to destroy everything in the name of comfort and less accountability for self in regards to the planet?

Sorry it doesnt make sense, why would we want regulation and control? this is a nation of liberties and freedoms and we think we have it better than commie countries who shop and own everything we do, and lions and tigers and bears oh my... the point.. agian.. this is a nation of freedoms and let each state govern its own.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I posted in the BSL section a petition to stop the killing of pits in ohio . Not sure how much good it will actually do but its worth a try anyways ,and its to stop BSL . Just thought I would mention it , but on the topic of the wild animals . I have to agree and disagree with what they did ,I feel bad for the animals but containing and tranq. that many animals would have been impossible IMO .


Crazy that the laws to have a wild animal a not as strict as theu are on a pitbull/and owner there .
 
#25 ·
if your in any country BUT the USA its OKAY to rule by limited liberty. This is the land of liberty and I appreciate the freedom to have wild animals as part of the "den". ANYONE ... ANYONE who would want to take that risk is CRAZY anyway, take it from the source :hammer: LOL Im a Ron Paul supporting Constitutionalist. Give me freedom/liberty or give me death! Thats the USA.

When I lived in Okla and while growing up there, if you had a PUMA (mt.lion) or a cheetah you could "falconere" so to speak, you could course deer. There is a Clouded Leopard research and rehabitation conservation place in Okla that started out like "backyard breeders" so to speak in the sense of society point of view. Most men go crazy when or shortly before their wives leave them; people are crazy.. did you know that .. why do you think the astronauts and super sonic flight pilots have to always take rigorous psychological testing and prepping? Because it takes someone whos crazy to do those things.

I look at each case individually this isn't a string of events by no mean should their be a WITCH HUNT! The POINT is the OFFICIALS expect the PEOPLE to be ACCOUNTABLE for IGNORANCE .. .. So should they be.. because people and our rights and liberties are above any branch of government let alone the police or judicial system they work for us. BE MORE ATTENTIVE.

In Oklahoma you do have to have permits for certain big cats and primates but There was a man who was arrested for pitting his baboon against ghetto pits.. LOL dumb Tart people are far and wide. STILL .. let each state make rules more or less socialist or communist or police state or utopian or constutional, etc. Let there be freedom .. in the one country that has it in place of its soul foundation. AND lets please PLEASE keep the witch hunts focused on METH, CROOKED GOVERNMENT (all branches), and of course true terrorist threats that want to destroy the constitutionally founded United States of America. Let the socialist, and communist countries do what they do.. but when you can get videos of lion, and tiger farms in china, india, korea, .. where they raise them and interbreed them for all sorts of capital purposes.

BUT HEY .. lets regulate and control LIBERTY in the Land of Liberty..



:hammer: LOL This is How I think, by no means do I say your opinion doesnt matter, I see a political witch hunt .. its a good smoke screen. I enjoy reading the thread ... we can regulate and control all we want, but no matter what you can't cure stupid ( isnt that what you said KM) .. BUT you can ENLIGHTEN its called education and the study for truth in all things.
 
#26 ·
if your in any country BUT the USA its OKAY to rule by limited liberty. This is the land of liberty and I appreciate the freedom to have wild animals as part of the "den". ANYONE ... ANYONE who would want to take that risk is CRAZY anyway, take it from the source :hammer: LOL Im a Ron Paul supporting Constitutionalist. Give me freedom/liberty or give me death! Thats the USA.

When I lived in Okla and while growing up there, if you had a PUMA (mt.lion) or a cheetah you could "falconere" so to speak, you could course deer. There is a Clouded Leopard research and rehabitation conservation place in Okla that started out like "backyard breeders" so to speak in the sense of society point of view. Most men go crazy when or shortly before their wives leave them; people are crazy.. did you know that .. why do you think the astronauts and super sonic flight pilots have to always take rigorous psychological testing and prepping? Because it takes someone whos crazy to do those things.

I look at each case individually this isn't a string of events by no mean should their be a WITCH HUNT! The POINT is the OFFICIALS expect the PEOPLE to be ACCOUNTABLE for IGNORANCE .. .. So should they be.. because people and our rights and liberties are above any branch of government let alone the police or judicial system they work for us. BE MORE ATTENTIVE.

In Oklahoma you do have to have permits for certain big cats and primates but There was a man who was arrested for pitting his baboon against ghetto pits.. LOL dumb Tart people are far and wide. STILL .. let each state make rules more or less socialist or communist or police state or utopian or constutional, etc. Let there be freedom .. in the one country that has it in place of its soul foundation. AND lets please PLEASE keep the witch hunts focused on METH, CROOKED GOVERNMENT (all branches), and of course true terrorist threats that want to destroy the constitutionally founded United States of America. Let the socialist, and communist countries do what they do.. but when you can get videos of lion, and tiger farms in china, india, korea, .. where they raise them and interbreed them for all sorts of capital purposes.

BUT HEY .. lets regulate and control LIBERTY in the Land of Liberty..

:hammer: LOL This is How I think, by no means do I say your opinion doesnt matter, I see a political witch hunt .. its a good smoke screen. I enjoy reading the thread ... we can regulate and control all we want, but no matter what you can't cure stupid ( isnt that what you said KM) .. BUT you can ENLIGHTEN its called education and the study for truth in all things.
:goodpost:
 
#27 ·
The whole thing was tragic and I feel something should of done prior to this horrific situation not only for the animals sake but for the man's. It reminds me of an old saying my father used to say. Why wait for something horrible to happen before something is done. Same as child abuse (I know this is off subject) If you know something is going on why keep giving people opportunities to continue f*ing up. In hopes they will change their ways. The innocent suffer in the long run. RIP and be free in your new wild kingdom
 
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