Why would you turn tigers loose and then kill yourself? Seriously.

[uppityperson]

seems calling someone and asking them to come check your beasts would be smarter. But I guess it's like people who kill their family and then themselves. Not thinking straight and wanting everyone, everything they love dead also.

What a shame all the way around.

[rfranklin]

1. Born free...as free as the wind blows....

Giving them back to nature...

[uppityperson]

3. Lions I understand as they'd mostly just hang out, but tigers?

Wild animals kept in cages then released to another place rarely do well. I just find it incredibly self centered. Wish he'd just committed suicide.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Giving them back to nature....in Zanesville Ohio?

Umm.....

[Lint Head]

2. Revenge? Apparently the owner had done jail time for abusing the animals.

[uppityperson]

5. Ah,thank you, hadn't read that. That makes more sense.

What a nasty thing to do for the animals. Very much abusing them.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. The guy was an asshole

He claimed that he loved the animals. Well he was obviously full of shit.

[customerserviceguy]

16. The most charitable thing I can figure out to say about him

was that he was mentally ill. I guess that started when he felt compelled to make his own private zoo, and it just sort of took off from there.

[AtomicKitten]

6. I suppose it's a less horrible outcome than having them starve unattended.

The guy had been cited before for cruelty and neglect.

The whole mess is a goddamn shame. :cry:

[reACTIONary]

7. I think because you can't do it...

...after you kill yourself. :P

[Kennah]

9. Ego was much bigger than his heart

[renate]

28. ding ding ding ding ding

I think you're right.

[tnlefty]

10. Why was he even allowed to have them in the first place?!?

When I saw this this morning and saw the endangered animals who were slaughtered not only from the actions of this asshole, but those who allowed him to have them in the first place and after the complaints against him, the jail time, and no one moved in to remove those animals? Assholes all I say.

The are cheetahs, Bengal tigers, leopards dead because of moronic humans. Why didn't they allow him to have sea turtles, whales and other species that are in trouble in the wild? Just makes me sick and angry.

[customerserviceguy]

17. Because not all places have laws that protect these animals.

I have a feeling that Ohio is going to join the ranks of those that either prohibit such collections, or severely restrict them. I hope the other states that allow this will take notice, too.

[Gemini Cat]

20. Ohio does not currently have a law against this.

Gov Strickland wanted such a law however, when Kasich got into office, the order was allowed to expire.

[tnlefty]

22. I understand that, and please see post 21, and

that my question was more rhetorical and angry. I'll admit that with our General Assembly in the hands of repugs, who think it's great to have guns in bars, the situation may change here.

I hope not.:hi:

[tnlefty]

21. I understand that not all places have laws, etc.

There are animal sanctuaries in my state, one for elephants where the animals are there for life, there is a wolf, wolf-hybrid sanctuary a few miles from my house, but they for now anyway have a specific purpose, not 'I want these animals, and I'm gonna have them'.

I know a family who has a permit to have have a wolf-brid, she's over 80% wolf. She's gorgeous and I've had my hands in her fur many times, and she's had her tongue in my mouth twice...yuck and she's much better behaved than my neighbors' dogs. She lives with a family, cats included, and she has 112 acres of fenced in (carefully fenced in) land to run and do wolf-brid things on. However, I wouldn't want to responsible for her.

I think my question was part rhetorical and part angry.:hi:

[Gemini Cat]

27. I knew where you were coming from.

I ask the same question when I first heard of this. :hi:

[tnlefty]

30. I can only speak for myself, but I'm about ready to see the

breeding and sheltering of these animals, some of them misleadingly defined as sanctuaries shut down.

I was trying to escape from so much bad news last night and I switched to Animal Planet on the teevee. They had back to back programs about animals kept in private hands that never should be...and more times than not, the animals paid the price for being wild animals and attacking the stupid humans who mistakenly think they have a supreme bond with the animals.

Jeebus, one case was in Canada and neighbors were upset that this man, who thought he owned the big cats, had many neighbors lodge complaints about lions and tigers running loose, the owner thought he was teaching them about their territory, and big cats sunning on his front porch even after they ha attacked people.

They went to their local jurisdiction, like a city council to try to get the big cats removed, with no success. It ended up that one of his tigers killed him. Same scenario, what to do with these big cats without enough true non-breeding sanctuaries to keep them.

Big Cat Rescue does a good job, from what I've seen. :hi:

[Poll_Blind]

11. Along with all the other good points posters have brought up, he also had a collection of...

...monkeys which he kept inside his home and which presumably he was more attached to. He did not release those before his death.

PB

[tech5270]

12. Local news said that he had suffered from depression

My thought is that the depression was caused by the fact that he knew he couldn't care for the animals anymore. I don't think you take on that kind of responsibility without really caring. There were charges of mistreatment in the past.

I figure he no longer had the money to care for them properly.

[tammywammy]

14. I read that his wife had recently moved out of the house. n/t

[tech5270]

18. I didn't hear that but it would depress me as well for a decade or

two or three.

[tnlefty]

23. If he was so caring why didn't he call the Humane Society or

other organizations to help try to feed/place these animals, especially the cheetahs, tigers, leopards who are struggling in the wild?

Surely someone, including zoos, would've worked with him to take these animals. He should've made calls for the welfare of these animals a long time ago. Professionals could've determined if any of them could be released or if not found zoos for them, or tried to find sanctuaries for them.

He didn't even try to find a place for them he just ensured their deaths which isn't a very caring act to me.

[valerief]

13. Right. Makes no sense. nt

[Motown_Johnny]

15. one final act of defiance?

[BootinUp]

19. This country is going completely around the bend

just wanted to post that for some reason.

[Nevernose]

24. I've met a lot of these people in Vegas

Because that's where I've spent most of my life ( I like to say that my childhood was in the South, but I grew up in Nevada) and my family was in the entertainment industry. With very few exceptions, these exotic animal breeders are virtually all super right wing assoles. For whatever that's worth.

[moondust]

25. That was my guess.

RW extremist, possibly getting revenge on his neighbors for past complaints or something or society at large for locking him up.

Could be wrong, of course.

[Nevernose]

26. Yeah, I've never met the guy.

But I've met probably a dozen of these guys. And with the exception of Siegfried and Roy, most of them were far more concerned with the "intrusion" of the government on their "rights" than they were with the well being of their animals. I put more effort into taking care of my goldfish than most exotic animal breeders I've met do in taking care of their higher order mammals.

[jeff47]

29. He committed suicide. You can pretty much guarantee he wasn't completely rational (nt)