Continue enforcing law regulating wild animals

It took a long time for the state of Ohio to establish sensible regulations for private citizens who chose to take on the extraordinary responsibility of keeping wild animals. But the Ohio Department of Agriculture continues to demonstrate that it is serious about enforcing the law.

While the hard line the department is taking has brought it some criticism from owners of the animals and their supporters, the owners who are fighting the state brought their troubles on themselves.

They challenged the law in court, which was their right, but while doing so, they continued to ignore the law, which was bad strategy. They gambled on their ability to have the law overturned, and after having lost are now surprised that there are consequences.

They should have recognized that the Ohio law was far from onerous and that it only began to bring the state into line with a majority of states that had long limited the ability of private citizens to own wild and dangerous animals. The freedom with which they had taken in animals that only belong in the wild or in a proper zoo setting was an exception, not the rule, among states.

The latest case involves the state’s seizing a lion, six tigers, a black leopard, a liger (a cross between a lion and a tigress), a cougar and a Kodiak bear Jan. 28 from Kenny Hetrick of Stony Ridge near Toledo.

It took the state nearly four years to pass and begin enforcing a law after the dramatic events of October 2011 in Muskingum County that made it clear that Ohio’s laissez-faire attitude was not good for the animals in captivity and was dangerous for the public.

Unregulated private zoo

That was when Terry Thompson, who operated an unregulated private zoo near Zanesville, released 50 wild animals into the countryside before killing himself. Faced with the oncoming night and the danger presented by roaming big cats and bears, the Muskingum County sheriff ordered his men to shoot to kill. Forty-eight of Thompson’s dangerous animals died that day.

It took more than two years for the General Assembly to pass and place in effect the Dangerous Wild Animals Act, which required owners of thousands of exotic animals in the state to register them by Dec. 31, 2013, and to meet reasonable safety standards.

Hetrick missed the application deadline by nearly 10 months. The Department of Agriculture says he submitted an incomplete application after the deadline, didn’t microchip all his animals as mandated and had facilities that didn’t meet legal requirements.

Two weeks ago a hearing officer concluded that Hetrick’s appeal of the state’s confiscation of his menagerie was without merit.

The state’s priority continues to be enforcing a law that protects the animals and the public.

It is unfortunate that many of the people who thought that they had a right to own animals that represented a danger to their neighbors could not see that the state had a stronger right to protect its residents.