Enact Balanced Law on Animals
Ohio state law regulates a variety of potentially dangerous behaviors, everything from use of fireworks to drunken driving. There is no reason a balanced statute on ownership of exotic animals cannot be added to the books.
It was clear before the Muskingum County Sheriffs Department had to kill dozens of exotic animals, including rare tigers, the state should have better regulations on owning such creatures. Sheriffs deputies had to shoot the animals after their clearly disturbed owner, Terry Thompson, opened their cages before killing himself.
Former Gov. Ted Strickland had issued an executive order banning most ownership and sales of exotic animals, but the mandate was allowed to expire when new Gov. John Kasich took office. In reaction to the Muskingum County tragedy, Kasich issued his own order last week.
Kasichs action does not ban either sale or ownership of exotic animals. In effect, he merely increases state oversight in an effort to enforce existing laws better.
That gives legislators some breathing room to consider new laws.
Some have suggested an outright ban on private ownership of exotic animals. That worries the few Ohioans who possess creatures such as tigers, bears, mountain lions, etc.
A ban also would raise the question of whether organizations such as zoos and preserves such as The Wilds would run afoul of the law.
There is a simple bottom line here: Only responsible Ohioans - and that includes both organizations as well as individuals - should be allowed to sell and/or keep exotic animals. It was obvious before Thompson set the stage for a tragedy that he did not fit into the category.
Surely legislators, working with animal welfare groups, zoos and preserves and individual owners of exotic animals, can come up with equitable, humane new rules. That should be done as soon as possible, because Kasichs order is no more than a stopgap measure.