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In Ohio, a panic over one man's zoo

thebigsd

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
3,535
Location
Quarryville, PA
This story is just too bizarre to not discuss. Lots of different things going on in this one. First off, the police killed a lot of animals rather than attempting to capture them humanely. Second, what kind of regulations should there be on exotic animals? Third, will they ever find the last monkey?

http://usat.ly/qLIPw5
 

Cmdr_Haggis

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Messages
54
Location
Leesburg, VA
not to take away from a crazy situation but since when is a bear an exotic animal?

If my neighbor is walking his pet bear down the road, I'd qualify that as exotic. Whether it should be illegal is another issue. As much as I like going to the zoo to see in person critters I might never get a chance to see, I don't really see the need to keep wild animals penned up. I wouldn't like being caged and I imagine they aren't too keen on the idea either.

My family and I visited a bear "zoo" in Cherokee, NC during our yearly trip to the Smoky Mountains. What I saw there made me never want to return to that "zoo". The bears were kept in nearly bare pits (no pun intened) and they looked downright miserable. It was sickening. I've not seen photos of this fellows "zoo", but I doubt it's in any better shape than the one I saw in Cherokee.
 

Daylen

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Aug 29, 2010
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America
If my neighbor is walking his pet bear down the road, I'd qualify that as exotic. Whether it should be illegal is another issue. As much as I like going to the zoo to see in person critters I might never get a chance to see, I don't really see the need to keep wild animals penned up. I wouldn't like being caged and I imagine they aren't too keen on the idea either.

My family and I visited a bear "zoo" in Cherokee, NC during our yearly trip to the Smoky Mountains. What I saw there made me never want to return to that "zoo". The bears were kept in nearly bare pits (no pun intened) and they looked downright miserable. It was sickening. I've not seen photos of this fellows "zoo", but I doubt it's in any better shape than the one I saw in Cherokee.

I hope you aren't advocating more laws and less freedom. If you don't like zoos don't go to them. Someone likes them and people shouldn't try and stop their pursuit of liberty.
 

Dreamer

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
5,360
Location
Grennsboro NC
This guy and his wife didn't run a "zoo". They did "exotic animal rescue". Essentially, when individuals buy an exotic animal, and later decide they can't handle it, they often sell them to people like this rather than having them put down.

Whether keeping wild animals in cages just to preserve their life is more humane than putting them down when they are no longer wanted is another debate altogether.

But he wasn't running a "zoo" and his property was never open to the public...

BTW, he also used to be a FFL, until he got raided in the 1990s and was found to have a whole mess of "illegal" firearms, including unregistered SBRs, full-auto rifles, and several firearms with the serial numbers obliterated, and he got his FFL pulled.

Technically, this case should be investigated as a murder, because there is NO WAY this guy shot himself with a firearm, because he was a "prohibited person", having been convicted on several Federal firearms violations. I mean, EVERYONE knows that "gun control" laws work, so there is no way this guy could have legally possessed a firearm with which to shoot himself... :banghead:
 

DontTreadOnMeVa

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Nov 18, 2009
Messages
132
Location
, ,
I hope you aren't advocating more laws and less freedom. If you don't like zoos don't go to them. Someone likes them and people shouldn't try and stop their pursuit of liberty.

As someone that has work with exotics for much of his life, I am horrified at what happened and I am also saddened by the bad press good keepers are getting. This a$$hat's actions are a black eye for those of us that are passionate keepers that are doing everything we can to do good for the animals we work with. Much like those if us with a passion for firearms and the second amendment cringe when a bad shooting story hits the news, this is how those that love and work with exotics feel about that has happened in Ohio. Sadly, this gives ammo to animal rights groups such as peta and the HSUS to try and impose bans. In many ways they are much like the Brady bunch and their ilk.

Daylen is right about respecting others pursuits and liberty. Just as say hunting are not everyone cup of tea..working with exotics might not be yours. All of our liberties are stronger if we remember to respect others pursuits, passions and happiness.
 
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Daylen

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Aug 29, 2010
Messages
2,223
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America
Technically, this case should be investigated as a murder, because there is NO WAY this guy shot himself with a firearm, because he was a "prohibited person", having been convicted on several Federal firearms violations. I mean, EVERYONE knows that "gun control" laws work, so there is no way this guy could have legally possessed a firearm with which to shoot himself... :banghead:

You might be using sarcasm, but I'm a bit suspicious of the official story of suicide. I suspect a hit.
 

Jack House

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Joined
Jun 12, 2010
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2,611
Location
I80, USA
75 deaths in 20 years? Anyone really worried about such a pathetically low number?

Posted using my HTC Evo
 

peter nap

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
13,551
Location
Valhalla
I hope you aren't advocating more laws and less freedom. If you don't like zoos don't go to them. Someone likes them and people shouldn't try and stop their pursuit of liberty.

Fu** their liberty and Fu** the people that like them!

I posted this on another board and yeah, I hunt but wouldn't cage them!

I don't know that there was anything else they could do Muldoon. I wasn't there and I'm not gonna Monday Morning Quarterback them. That doesn't change the fact that there is a pile of animals stacked up like cordwood that will serve no purpose other than to fertilize a hole in that farm.

The real shame goes back to the origin of the animals. They shouldn't have ever been in captivity in the first place. Nothing should live it's life in a cage.
Now the tree huggers will tell everyone Zoos are necessary to save these big cats from extinction....boy howdy
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They don't know how lucky they are to be saved from extinction.

In Richmond a few years ago, Maymont, a private park, had a couple of bears. One of the idiotic soccer moms picked her kid up and lifted him over the outer fence so he could get a better look at the bear. The bear bit him.

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A 4 yr old child and at least 1 parent were apparently at the rear of the 2-acre bear exhibit Saturday when the child climbed a 4-foot wooden fence into a restricted area and approached the 10-foot chain-link fence that surrounds the bears. One of the bears bit the 4-year-old boy last weekend. Both bears, ages 12 and 9, were euthanized because it was not known which one bit the boy.

It didn't hurt the kid badly but instead of taking away Mom's PTA privileges, they blamed the bear for doing what bears in cages do. They killed both of them.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Game Commission found a couple more cute little cubs to replace him.

I'm really ashamed to be the same species as these idiots!
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PistolPackingMomma

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2011
Messages
1,884
Location
SC
My family and I visited a bear "zoo" in Cherokee, NC during our yearly trip to the Smoky Mountains. What I saw there made me never want to return to that "zoo". The bears were kept in nearly bare pits (no pun intened) and they looked downright miserable. It was sickening. I've not seen photos of this fellows "zoo", but I doubt it's in any better shape than the one I saw in Cherokee.

I think I've been to that "zoo" in Cherokee. It was a complete and utter hell hole. Concrete pits with no straw, zero toys, no shelter, no view of trees or anything like that. A bear cub was kept locked up in a cage half the size of my coffee table. :mad: I wouldn't have gone, except my sister in law wanted to see the animals, and wouldn't go by herself. :cuss:
 

peter nap

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
13,551
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Valhalla
Where were zoos mentioned? I believe the quote involved nasty things against freedom and liberty.

You have to be blood kin to Hank T.
Stupid people put those folks in office so I expect they love you!
 

georg jetson

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
2,416
Location
Slidell, Louisiana
Where were zoos mentioned? I believe the quote involved nasty things against freedom and liberty.

Yes it did. Perhaps the shame he feels being a member of this species may cause him to change species... fortunately for the rest of us, no other species are allowed to vote... yet...
 
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thebigsd

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
3,535
Location
Quarryville, PA
Where were zoos mentioned? I believe the quote involved nasty things against freedom and liberty.

I will try and explain this. Peter's quote, which you took out completely out of context without even thinking of adding a SNIP tag, was in reference to caging animals. Now take a leap here....where do you find caged animals? Wait for it, wait for it, and the answer is.......a ZOO. In fact the word zoo is right there in Peter's post.
 
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