Two Things About Ohio

We already had one really great thing about Ohio today-- the newest PPP polling showing that folks there have had it with Kasich's brand of Koch-funded domestic fascism. Before we move to the escaped wild animals from a private zoo in Zanesville, Ohio, let's take a look at a great proposal from Youngstown legislator Bob Hagan. The video above shows he and Rachel discussing it in some depth. Basically what Hagan is doing, is saying that if Kasich and his right-wing cronies are going to insist on drug-testing people applying for welfare, then other people who get taxpayer funds-- like legislators and Supreme Court justices and governors, for example-- should also... pee in the cup.

A blue collar New Deal Democrat, Hagan has been in the state legislature-- in both the Senate and the House-- since 1987. He introduced legislation that would allow Ohio voters to recall Kasich and long before the drug-testing conflagration, he made a similar point when Republicans tried to ban gay couples from adopting children but making believe he was introducing a bill called the Republican Adoption Ban of 2006, which cited credible research indicating that children in Republican households had a host of emotional problems. I think you'll like this guy. Watch the clip.

And no doubt you've heard about yesterday's catastrophe in Zanesville, Ohio in which 48 animals (including 18 Bengal tigers; there are only 1,400 in the world) were killed when, Terry Thompson, a right-wing freak and Republican Party donor, decided to free the four-legged residents of his private zoo and commit suicide. Ken posted about it last night. And, as he showed, mayhem ensued, mayhem which endangered the families in the area, the first responders and, of course, these exotic animals that should never have been in a rich person's private preserve to begin with. Nor would they have been if not for anti-regualtion fanatic John Kasich. "Former Governor Ted Strickland (a Democrat) issued an executive order banning their keeping before leaving office in January, though it expired under Governor John Kasich." And it's not just Kasich; it's all kinds of sociopaths elected to office as Republicans who believe that freedom" means if you're rich enough you can do whatever you want, no matter the danger to anyone else... or to the planet.

The release of up to 51 species of wild animals from a private farm in Zanesville, Ohio, has raised questions about what is and isn't legal when it comes to owning exotic animals.

"There is an epidemic of private ownership of dangerous exotic animals in the United States," Wayne Pacelle, head of The Humane Society of the United States, said Wednesday. "It's a bit of a free-for-all in states like Ohio."

State laws often oversee only native species or farm animals, Pacelle says, not exotic ones like the tigers or bears that were found on Terry Thompson's preserve. Thompson set the animals free Tuesday night and then killed himself.

"These animals really fall into a kind of regulatory limbo where they go unregulated and are freely allowed," Pacelle said. As a result, he said, there are "thousands of exotic animal menageries across the nation."

The Humane Society has documented 22 incidents with dangerous exotic animals in Ohio since 2003, demonstrating risks to public health and safety and animal welfare.

...Conservation biologist Luke Dollar of Duke University says some estimates speculate that 6,000 tigers live in private hands in the USA and "it may be higher. We don't really know. That's an alarming thing."

"Owning one of these animals as a pet is just another form of Russian roulette. These are animals that attack and kill things for a living," Dollar said. "The Ohio situation is a real tragedy and I hope it gets people's attention."

Federal laws don't cover possession of tigers, wolves or grizzly bears, relying on state and local laws instead. Such "exotic animals" require a permit from the Agriculture Department, commonly issued to zoos and circuses, for their exhibition, sale or breeding.

Two federal laws, the Endangered Species Act, which covers tigers and grizzly bears, and the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which covers big cats such as lions, prohibit the sale and interstate transport of endangered animals, like some of those reportedly released in Zanesville.

"But federal law does not regulate mere possession," says Sandra Cleva of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

For constitutional reasons, she said, states have been allowed to govern simple ownership of dangerous animals instead. Some large animals, such as black bears, are not covered by federal laws at all.

And one of the escaped monkeys has herpes. Other wealthy sociopaths who own these private menageries are worried that more safety regulations may cost them some money-- or even prohibit private ownership altogether.

Exotic animals should live in the wild, not be exploited in profit-motivated zoos-- or worse-- as "pets" or backyard oddities by people who have a deeply misguided sense of dominion or ownership.

...There is no excuse for wild, potentially dangerous, exotic animals to be kept in private hands. Ohio is one of a handful of states with woefully few regulations on the books to govern such questionable close contact with wildlife, and Born Free USA has been pushing for years to get a stronger law enacted in the state.

What happened in Ohio this week is appalling. All those animals, imprisoned for no good reason. Their "owner" was apparently a tortured soul who took his own life and put the lives of nearby residents in peril through his bizarre act. And all those wandering animals, confused by their sudden and unfathomable "freedom," were shot dead as though they were alien invaders in a safe bucolic land.

None of that had to happen. It could have been avoided. Private possession of exotic animals is inexcusable and it puts human lives at risk. When will we, as a civilization, learn that wild animals are just as entitled to live freely on this planet as we are and it is our duty and obligation to ensure that this is possible?

Maybe, just maybe, the wildlife slaughter on the streets of Ohio will finally spur the change we need for safer and more compassionate communities across the country.