Exotic animals part of Legislature’s to-do list

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

With a nearly $56 billion, two-year state budget already in place, Ohio lawmakers head into a new year with their workloads a little lighter.

Next up: an agenda that’s likely less controversial than 2011. The year was marked with protests on the Statehouse lawn, packed hearing rooms and heated debate over collective-bargaining restrictions for unionized public workers. Voters overwhelming rejected the new limitations in November.

Cracking down on the ownership of exotic animals and spurring development of the state’s oil and natural-gas industry are expected to be among the top issues before the Legislature in 2012.

Ohio has some of the nation’s weakest restrictions on exotic pets. And efforts to strengthen the state’s law took on new urgency in October when police were forced to kill 48 wild animals, including endangered Bengal tigers, after their owner freed them from his Zanesville farm and then committed suicide.

Gov. John Kasich has said he wants regulations in place quickly.

A study committee and state agencies have proposed a framework for new regulations that would ban casual ownership of bears, lions, monkeys, venomous snakes and other wildlife. Zoo, circuses and research facilities would be exempt.

The legislative framework suggests the ban start Jan. 1, 2014. Owners would have to meet new temporary safety standards before then and register their animals with the state within 60 days of the law’s effective date.