Posted on 10/20/2011 11:24:27 AM PDT by Enchante
ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Amid expressions of horror and revulsion at the killing of dozens of wild animals in Ohio — and photographs of their bloody carcasses — animal rights advocates agreed there was little local authorities could have done to save the dangerous creatures once they began roaming the countryside after their owner released them before taking his own life.
Sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals — including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions — after Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County Animal Farm near Zanesville, threw their cages open Tuesday and then committed suicide.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Such gorgeous animals....so sad.
Too bad the guy was so crazy at the end. He could have offered these innocent animals to any number of organizations or wildlife farms who would have cared for them.
It is a tragedy all around.
Video of Jack Hanna...
Animal Expert Jack Hanna was called in to help the deputies, and he said though animal lovers would have preferred the beasts be tranquilized and recaptured, the deputies really had no choice.
“You cannot tranquilize an animal like this at night time,” he explained. “They hide in the bushes. In the dark, they don’t know what they are doing. You could be jeopardizing a lot of human lives.”
When you have that many predators out in a settled area and it is dark and raining and you don't have a whole bunch of trained professional properly equipped animal handlers who know all the details of the animals they are going to be rounding up you shoot the animals.
Tranquilizer darts are not "one size fits all" what will take down a wolf will not slow down a tiger. It takes time for the darts to work, up to 40 minutes. You have to get fairly close to shoot the animal. Putting all that aside, tranquilizer dart are not readily available. There is no need for them to be. This is not a normal situation.
Same here.
I’m a big time animal lover and LEO criticizer, but I’m confident that they did what they had to.
It was getting dark, a storm was coming, Sheriff’s deputies aren’t armed with tranqs, and these animals posed a danger to the public.
The asshat owner is responsible for this tragedy.
A short time later a similar situation occurred in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where DNR officials shot and killed a bear in a public park. Again many people were upset, but again the DNR had no dart gun. What should the DNR have done if they had a dart gun? First they could have just cleared the park, if given authority from the local police, and hoped the bear would climb down and leave without hurting anyone. If they managed to hit the bear with a dart but he wasn't fully tranquilized, he could have hurt some people in the park. Then, of course, there would be people saying the DNR should have immediately shot and killed the bear. And there would be lawsuits. Sometimes officials can't win.
I dont think you’ll find to many towns with a population of 25,000 that have a stock pile of night vision glasses. They said they had only 4 dart guns available anyways.
Exactly. There is also the possibility that the Bengal tigers were from other “farms” of this type, which, given their inbred nature, would not have been suitable for continued breeding, much less rehabilitation back into the wild.
Tell that to the monkey. =-O
Just kidding. As gross as the whole thing is, the animals had to be put down. You can’t put a bunch of people & pets at risk because some weirdo opened the cages.
The first report was they killed about twenty of the anmals upon arrival, so not two many left. The rest they hunded down and killed. But that is just what I read, but I doubt if the dead ones wanted to eat.
A monkey, a lion and a grizzly bear walk into a bar......no really
I’ll take the word of the expert...
Animal Expert Jack Hanna was called in to help the deputies, and he said though animal lovers would have preferred the beasts be tranquilized and recaptured, the deputies really had no choice.
“You cannot tranquilize an animal like this at night time,” he explained. “They hide in the bushes. In the dark, they don’t know what they are doing. You could be jeopardizing a lot of human lives.”
Since the Sheriff had the heart to call Jack Hanna I doubt he was any too thrilled to kill those animals. That is the only choice he had considering his job is to protect HUMAN LIFE.
Hitting a tiger with a dart will make him mad. The drugs won’t take effect fast enough to stop that tiger from attacking.
People have been killed trying to do so. The sheriff tried it, but even the people from the zoo said it was to risky.
What evidence do you have that the police officers of this agency were trigger happy?
What would you have done differently?
When will you arrive at the scene to personally make sure that the officers don't steal the caucuses?
In the U.S., lions, tigers and wolves kept by private citizens far outnumber the ones in zoos. Somthing like 8,000 privatley kept lions and tigers.
Over THIRTY hungry adult apex predators, any one of which can turn you into dinner in about 6 seconds, and you're IN THE DARK with barely adequate firearms.
Taking on multiple large carnivores with small caliber weapons takes some fortitude.
Naysayers can bitch all they want, but it's a miracle nobody was seriously injured or killed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.