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Carcasses lay on the ground at the Muskingum County Animal Farm on Wednesday in Zanesville, Ohio. 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 threw their cages open Tuesday and then committed suicide. Photo from AP |
Laissez-faire capitalism means that there should be nothing that interferes with buying and selling and making money. Not regulation, not enforcement of any kind; everything is supposedly fixed by the invisible hand of the market place.
Bullshit. We need regulation and enforcement of fraud in all markets, but most of all in the dark markets that are as opposite of transparent as it is possible to be, and where there is no level playing field for the participants, and where some are predators on others.
The trade and ownership of exotic animals is another are of commerce that should be strictly regulated and only narrowly allowed, with more regard for the wellfare of the animals than greedy profits or for the supposed property rights of the irresponsible owner. The choices of these people, of this man who SHOT HIMSELF with a firearm that was arguably originally LEGAL, endangered others, and no invisible hand of the market fixed this. The intervention of paid union-member government employees had to fix this.
Those who claim property rights are next to godliness, those who believe government should be smaller, those who believe unions are thugs do not appreciate or acknowledge the importance of those people and the relative right of property coming second to the right for other people to be safe.
I hate to find myself anywhere near, much less on the same side, as that jerk Wayne Pacelle or the dangerous extremists of PETA. But they are perfectly correct that the ownership of exotic animals poses an unacceptable risk to too many people, as well as not being good or healthy for the animals either.
From MSNBC.com:
Ohio owner of exotic animals was deep in debt
Sheriff says an animal bit the owner after he shot himself
Ohio owner of exotic animals was deep in debt
Sheriff says an animal bit the owner after he shot himself
"Surely, after this latest incident, enough blood has been shed for the state to take action," the group said in a statement.
Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.
This article contains reporting from The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff.
18 Bengal Tigers. They are classified as endangered by The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) with a decreasing population that is estimated at fewer than 2,500 individual tigers.
ReplyDeleteI would like to believe they could have been captured alive, but unfortunately the sheriff and his deputies were too ignorant to be able to do this.
Especially since they had been "pets" and somewhat accustomed to humans. A properly trained animal control person could have rescued these animals.
It makes me sick that these animals had to be killed.
Laci, the number I was hearing today was closer to 1,400 left in the wild, not 2,500. I was just listening to Jack Hanna, the famous zoologist describing why capture was not possible under the circumstances. I don't think that animal control could reasonably have captured these animals, and for any of those which were accustomed to people, that tends to be people specific, and often does not generalize to strangers.
ReplyDeleteHanna was particularly eloquent in describing the differences between this man, and a couple of people who are accomplished breeders, who have made an enormous contribution to maintaining and expanding captive populations of these endangered species.
What struck me as pertinent for bringing this to the blog for discussion is that the pretext 'because I want it, that's why' is used to justify certain firearms and firearm accessories versus regulation and limitation.
'Just because I wanna' has to be balanced against the threat to the safety of others. Sometimes waiting until after something goes wrong to act or prohibit is just too little too late.
OK, the only people I know who could have handled this are a significant plane ride away (Africa). Although, I did contact the Carolina Tiger rescue to find out if this slaughter was truly necessary.
ReplyDelete"I would like to believe they could have been captured alive, but unfortunately the sheriff and his deputies were too ignorant to be able to do this."
ReplyDeleteIgnorant may be a harsh word. They were certainly not trained or equipped to handle this and really, why should they be? Obviously this is not something your average Sheriff's department would encounter very often.
"A properly trained animal control person could have rescued these animals."
Probably, but where do you find one, or really several of them in this case, that are close by and ready to act?
"It makes me sick that these animals had to be killed."
Me too. I hope we will at least get some better legislation out of this mess.
I think they should have evacuated all the people in the area and sent them up to FWM's land. It could have been a type of refugee camp while they figured out how to capture the lion and tigers (and woofs).
ReplyDeleteNot sure what this means but....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2011/10/21/columbus-executive-order-to-be-signed.html