This news is a few days old now, but certainly worth noting.An exotic animal collector/owner/whatever in Zanesville decided to open all gates and pens on his large farm, and then killed himself. Emergency operators received calls about bears and lions. The next door neighbors saw a tiger chasing a horse. Officers were given the order to shoot all animals on sight. Among the forty-some animals killed by Sheriff deputies were: 9 male lions, 8 lionesses, a baboon, a couple wolves, a couple bears, and.. 18 tigers.
A very tragic situation. Although I'm all about finding diplomatic and humane situations to resolve incidents like this, you cannot blame the Sheriff for ordering the animals to be shot. If they had waited until the next morning, who knows where these predators would have ended up. Backyards, city streets, parks, the list is endless. I disagree with those who immediately bashed the department. Some believe they treated this as a free "big-game hunt" and drove around joy-riding and popping shots drive-by style on these poor creatures. I'm one the biggest animal lovers you'll ever find, but the right order was given.
Does animal life have the same importance as human-life? Absolutely. But this could have been a battle. As far as the officers knew, these animals wouldn't think twice about attacking. Turns out that mankind has the upper hand in these kind of situations. It is nature. Nature played out.
Poor creatures. What a sad day.
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