Wednesday, March 28, 2012
COLUMBUS
Evelyn Shaw has owned a cougar for more than 15 years. She’s also active in the United States Zoological Association and other exotic-animal groups.
On Tuesday, she was one of dozens of Ohioans who packed an Ohio Senate hearing room to voice their opposition to legislation that would ban new acquisitions of dangerous wild animals and impose licensing requirements and restrictions on existing animal owners.
As written, Shaw and others said, the proposed law would make it impossible for many current animal owners to comply.
Permits would run up to $3,000 or more, depending on the number of animals — a cost that, in cases, could be higher than the initial purchase price of the animals involved. Owners also would have to carry liability insurance of up to $1 million, among other requirements.
“This bill will cause the death of my animals or force me to go from a law-abiding citizen to a criminal,” she said in testimony before the Ohio Senate’s agriculture committee. “I purchased my animals legally and have maintained them legally for years.”
She added, “I think most of you are under the misconception that this bill grandfathers current owners, but this is far from the truth. Many of the requirements for the permits in this bill cannot be met or will be prohibitively expensive. No private owner will be able to keep their animals as this bill is written.”
Shaw was among nearly 30 people who offered testimony and dozens of others who submitted written comments in opposition to Senate Bill 310, which would restrict ownership of elephants, hippos, bears, tigers, lions, monkeys and a host of other wild animals, imposing permit, care and containment standards on existing owners.
The bill also creates separate requirements for varieties of snakes, whose owners could continue to breed and acquire new ones, provided they obtain proper permits and meet other state requirements.
The law changes were developed, in part, by a study group appointed by the governor and offered by Sen. Troy Balderson, a Republican from Zanesville, after his home community was thrust into the international spotlight after deputy sheriffs were forced to kill dozens wild animals that were let loose by their troubled owner.
The latter committed suicide.
During Tuesday’s hearing, animal owners asked that permit fees and insurance requirements be reduced and that various snakes, small primates and other species be removed from the proposed regulations, saying the animals do not pose a danger to the general public.
David Sagan, director of the Hocking Woods Nature Center in Nelsonville, said restricted snakes would not survive in Ohio’s temperatures even if they did manage to get out of their enclosures.
Even in the case of the latter, loose snakes could not cover very much ground very quickly.
“It is very, very rare for someone to get killed by a snake,” Sagan said.
Shaw said some current owners would be forced to break the law to keep their animals.
“Anytime something is banned, it goes underground,” she said. “Whether it was prohibition or what not, it didn’t stop it from happening. It just made people desperate. ... The underground animal trade will be far, far worse than owners who take care of their animals in loving, safe homes.”