Update II: Nevermind. As one might have suspected, the state was going to do something to make sure this didn’t happen. Per 10TV: “BREAKING: Ohio Dept. of Agriculture issues a quarantine on exotic animals, meaning they must stay at Columbus Zoo.”
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Update: The six rescued animals from the Zanesville exotic animal mess have been comfortably relaxing at the Columbus Zoo since their capture. As we noted below, Marian Thompson, the widow of Terry Thompson, was distraught at the death of her husband (even though they were dealing with some relationship issues) and the deaths of the animals. She referred to them as her “children,” saying one primate even slept with her in bed, and she wanted the remaining animals back.
That could happen as soon as today, 10TV reports.
The zoo has no legal rights to the animals and removed them from the farm with the permission of Marian Thompson.
“We had hoped Ms. Thompson would leave the animals at the zoo in the care of our team of professionals” said Columbus Zoo and Aquarium CEO and President Dale Schmidt. “We are trying to get authorization from government authorities and agencies to ensure they stay at the zoo. Unfortunately, the current laws do not protect the animals and at this time we have no legal right to stop them from being taken from the zoo.”
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Marian Thompson, the wife of Terry Thompson, the man who unleashed his sizable zoo of exotic animals on Zanesville before killing himself, wants the rescued animals back, according to Good Morning America.
56 animals in all were released; 48 were shot and killed by authorities.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2011.
Does this woman have rocks in her head? Get a plant lady.
Governor Strickland issued an executive order shortly before leaving office that would have tightened up regulations on ownership of exotic animals and likely made this particular sanctuary illegal. Kasich promptly swept them off the table because he said they would ‘hurt business.” He is now rushing to restore them giving all sorts of excuses. But right now, thanks to Kasich and his pals, Ohio is one of the weakest states in the U.S. when it comes to regulating how animals are treated. Cockfighting, puppy mills, private exotic animal sanctuaries — these are all more important than the welfare of animals. And in the last case, than the welfare of humans. Now that he’s getting a black eye in the media, Kasich is trying to walk back on this critical mistake HE made.
These animals aren’t “exotic” they are wild animals that someone has attempted to make domesticated. The woman should be given special privileges @ the zoo, maybe even given a job there, after all caring for such a large group of wild animals is a FULL TIME JOB…