Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!(Among Others...)
 

Rest at link...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,2040741.story

Looks like the Privateer household will have a variety of game on their bbq grill. :smug:

This is all over the news here... very bizarre story. They are not saying (and probably don't know yet) how the owner was killed - if someone else killed him and let the critters out, or if he opened everything and then killed himself. They are saying that he had a criminal record and was just recently released from prison where he'd been for a year on a firearms charge... which makes me wonder, who was taking care of the animals and compound in his absence, and where are they now?

They have people from the Columbus Zoo on site and they are hoping that when more animals are sighted they can shoot them with tranquilizers and remove them without any more of them having to be killed. That will depend on the situation and how the animals react if they can get the tranqulizers in them - if they can't take them alive safely it will mean the critters will have to be killed instead as they are (obviously) making public safety the primary concern.

The public is being advised to stay indoors and stay in their cars if they are traveling through the area. Area schools have been closed. What a bizarre situation. I just hope it's not the work of someone who thought he/she was making some statement about animal rights... certainly doesn't justify the death of the owner and it didn't do the animals any favors either as unfortunately most of them will probably end up being killed. :nope:

Well he certainly got one of the bears :DL

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...vHa2gagvblJv7E

This is starting to make big headlines in the US now, mainly because the Sheriff ordered the animals killed on site and not tranquilized. The animal huggers are coming out of the woodwork.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15364027

Have nothing against the animals, feel bad for them, but have to go with the Sheriff on this one. Tough decision to make but I think he made the right one. If he didn't and someone got hurt it would have been worse. His job and priority is to protect the public and his officers, and he did what he had to do.

I don't understand why everyone is blaming the Sheriff instead of the guy who had the animals and let them loose before killing himself.

dont worry it shouldnt be hard to take down the lions.

i mean, if the 49ers could do it...

Are the officials even trying to tranquilize the escaped animals?

I fully understand the justification for shooting them if they pose a threat. But I would like, when possible, for them to consider non-lethal ways also.

It was a bit confusing this morning. They interviewed the sheriff and a zoo official at least twice each, and each time separately. The sheriff was adamant about shooting to kill. The zoo official talked only about tranquilizing them but with the safety of the humans involved being a top priority, the implication being that shooting to kill was a last resort. They definitely seemed to be on two different wavelengths which is probably understandable given their occupations and the different perspectives that necessarily come from that.

Granted it was still dark and most of the story unfolded overnight so I can see where just shooting on sight would have been the best option in that situation. I haven't had the news on to hear what happened with any animals they located after sunup.

The guy let them loose then offed himself.

"The animals killed included 18 rare Bengal tigers, 17 lions, eight bears, three mountain lions, a baboon and a wolf", the sheriff said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44964272.../#.Tp-BNLKCvPY
updated 1 hour 22 minutes ago.


What a tragedy.

He got a walrus too..
:hmmm:
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6964/ha8hk.jpg

Yes it really is a crying shame. :cry:

It's sad they had to make the call to put the animals down.
:nope:

I agree with the decision based on public safety and past experiences with wild animals around my area.
We have had large Cats around here for the past few years and even a few Alligators that escaped into the nearby river!
:o
The gators died over the winter but were a VERY serious threat for some months.
I only know about the gators because it was a friend of mine that was raiseing them.
It was kept pretty hush hush or not news worthy enuff at the time?
:hmmm:
One of the large Cats dragged a deer into the rafters of another friends barn.
I've heard of bears being spotted from time to time also.
That has not been confirmed while all the other reports have been.

I use to walk the woods around my home armed only with a camera.
Those days are gone now.
I prefer to stay at the Top of the food chain myself.
:D

Looking at the aerial view attached to that article also gives a better appreciation for the gravity of that whole scenario. Firstly the farm is a trash heap and the enclosures look horrible for keeping that number of animals. Secondly though, you can see that the place is right off the I-70, within running distance of town, lots of woods and homes/workplaces all around, lots of places to hide, a terrible risk to take if you left dangerous animals alive. It wasn't in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure.

So with that in mind, at least the original putting down of animals that they couldn't contain before darkness fell was a good call. They could've brought in someone to help capture the stragglers on the second day, but at the end... better safe than sorry.

It's a shame, but at the end it's not the sheriff who's to blame - all of this is on the dead man's conscience here.

Bloody shame, but given the location there really wasn't any option of safely darting them, particularly in the night. Must have been terrifying for the locals, and why oh why did he have to have Bengal bloody Tigers, they're rare enough as it is! :nope:

The laws in Ohio need to change, definitely, we had such laws back in the sixties and you used to see people taking a panther down to the shops, thankfully we changed that...however that resulted in a lot of people just releasing their big cats into the wild where many still remain to this day.

Rgr that.