Ohio to return wild animals to widow

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Ohio to return wild animals to widow
By Jo Ingles | Reuters – 5 hrs ago.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Five wild animals will soon be returned to the widow of a man who released them into the Ohio countryside last year, state officials said on Monday, raising concerns of a repeat of the panic that gripped the state when dozens of beasts including lions, tigers and bears roamed free.

Seven months after Terry Thompson released 56 exotic animals near Zanesville, Ohio, and then committed suicide, the Ohio legislature still is struggling to draft regulations on wild animal ownership. Ohio is one of only a handful of states with no restrictions on exotic animal ownership.

The state Agriculture Department said on Monday it had no legal way to prevent the five remaining animals - a spotted leopard, a black leopard, two Celebes Macaque monkeys and a brown bear - from being given to Thompson's widow.

Marian Thompson has said she will take them back to the farm and put them in the cages they fled last October.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-return-wild-animals-family-allowed-panic-escape-000725574.html

[AtomicKitten]

1. Yipee skipee. Back to their cages.

These animals would be better off in a sanctuary or even a zoo to live out the remainder of their days.

[Lasher]

2. That's where they were, the Columbus Zoo.

I don't think many of the neighbors would be happy about this.