Wild animals are a danger to amateur handlers and public

A lion-tamer who worked with ex- otic animals in a magic act for 40 years was mauled by a tiger on a Las Vegas stage. A trainer at Sea World was pulled to her death by a whale at Sea World. If even professional animal trainers are unsafe around captive wild animals, what chance does an amateur have? Very little.

Last Thursday, Brent Kandra, 24, was mauled by a bear he was feeding at a menagerie maintained by a neighbor in Lorain County. Kandra was described by his father as a young man who loved animals and found the job tending Sam Mazzola’s animals preferable to selling phones at the mall, even though the paycheck was small and sometimes late.

Mazzola, who filed for bankruptcy in May, owned four tigers, a lion, eight bears and 12 wolves. And in Ohio, most of those animals can be kept by a private owner with little or no government supervision. It’s been a while, but people in Youngstown and Warren can remember when residents, including a prominent Youngstown plastic surgeon, kept big cats in the city or nearby suburbs.

Defying logic

It is one of man’s greatest vanities to think that he can control a lion, tiger or bear that is younger, stronger, larger, unpredictable and designed by nature to kill. It is incongruous that in a state that requires motorists to wear seatbelts for their own protection and goes to some lengths to discourage ownership of dangerous dogs, there are few restraints on people keeping wild animals capable of killing or maiming the owners, the handlers or innocent neighbors.

Arguably one of the biggest constraints is the financial liability that comes with such ownership, but in the case of the bankrupt Mazzola, that would seem to be of little consequence.

Indeed, after Kandra died and the bear who mauled him was killed by a veterinarian’s injection, Mazzola declared himself satisfied that this was a fluke and that he’s satisfied with the safety procedures at his compound.

That belies an arrogance that can only be reined in by the law. Yet the Ohio Department of Natural Resources had to issue permits only for Mazzola’s bears (for all the good that did). The state does not regulate the ownership of non-native animals.

It is popular today to decry the growth of government, and in some cases for good reason. But there is also a place for government in bringing order to society. The state regulates traffic for the benefit of all. It punishes recklessness of many types in the interest of public safety, especially in the protection of the innocent.

The death of a young man who allowed his love for animals and his disdain for a more ordinary life, should certainly spur the Legislature to re-examine its libertarian attitude toward dangerous, private menageries. Especially when they are managed by people who are untrained and owned by people who don’t seem to recognize the risks they are taking — even after tragedy strikes.