Yes, very sad that they had to be destroyed, yet I really don't understand why people want to keep such animals as "pets". They must be horribly expensive to feed and they have to know they are dangerous. Evidently this man could no longer afford to feed them, but perhaps he should have called a zoo to come and get them. A women in our state was killed a few years ago by her "pet" tigers. Maybe we need laws against keeping such animals and I would include dangerous snakes as well. But then, do we need MORE laws?

Not more laws. Just some way of getting people to have good judgement about things like this. Humans being like they are, I don't see that ever happening.

posieh, you said:"But then, do we need MORE laws?".
It seems that OH had an emergency law re exotic animals but the current gov let the law expire.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
"Gov.Ted Strickland banned people from bringing more exotic animals into Ohio in January, but allowed owners to keep the animals they already had."

"Current Gov. John Kasich let the emergency ban expire in April and opted to convene a group to study the issue."

My community is on emotional overload right now and I'm not in much of a mood to start listening to political soapboxing from either side of the fence. This was a tragedy on so many levels, but unlike the rest of you I know the parties involved and some of what was left unsaid in the media. These animals were no danger to anyone until they were let lose. Yes they were fed the morning it happened. The man who owned them was found dead amongst them unmolested. Did you hear that many of those animals were there because they were rescued from other places and given sanctuary? Probably not.

My FB page and emails, and the opinion threads of the local paper were full of some very thoughtless comments ranging from left-wing rants to comments about how their kids were going to have to make up an unneccesary snow day because of the school closings. Lots of Jokes about Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my. Don't people have souls anymore?

Let me be clear I don't like the market in exotics because I wonder how they came to market to be auctioned off in the first place. I also don't like the puppy mills.

When I first moved back to this area another exotic escaped and was shot by the authorities. It was kept on a local community campus as a mascot, for cripes sake and was dispatched when it escaped. I never really got over grieving for that needless loss but this one is so much worse.

I also believe in freedom of the press, but the endless pictures of the corpses laying in bloody piles was disgusting and past the point of civil. Hope they got their ratings out of that one. A monkey and a wolf were the last two remaining loose and a comment was made that wild monkeys can carry a disease humans can catch and people were advised not to approach it. Well, when the media got down with that one it was broadcast that a diseased killer monkey was out there running amok.

You know I really don't feel comfortable saying more because one is never really as anonymous as they think on a public forum. But as far as I know, it's still speculation as to how the course of events took place and things are not always as simple as they seem.

Let me be clear I don't like the market in exotics because I wonder how they came to market to be auctioned off in the first place. I also don't like the puppy mills.

Don't people have souls anymore?
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To answer your question, suzy, I'm pretty certain they do not.

I volunteer at an animal shelter on the south side of Chicago. It's in a bad neighborhood, and it's an open intake facility. Meaning, they have to take any animal that is brought in, no matter what. I can't tell you how hard it is to not cry.

I also attend weekly protests at a pet store that is notorious for buying its puppies from Amish puppy mills. I'm not one of the verbal ones. I just silently hold my sign that says "Honk if you hate puppy mills." I know this is only one pet store out of probably thousands nationwide, that sell puppies with no care for where they came from. I can't tell you how hard it is to not cry.

Karen

I am sorry Calliope - I didn't mean to sound flip. I posted that before I had read any of the in depth articles on it.
west Gardener - just one more item about our current governer that reinforces my lack of confidnece in him.

That's OK Tibs.....it's so easy to have a disconnect with headlines when they're somewhere else. Thanks. I like this governor a lot better than the last one but it doesn't say much when one has to pick between the lesser of evils, does it?