A tough week for Jack Hanna
One of our favorite American characters is Jack Hanna, retired director of the Columbus, Ohio Zoo. Hanna, a well known media figure who does the wild animal segments on David Letterman's television show, is knowledgeable, funny, and a great promoter of the study and appreciation of the animal kingdom.
Yesterday Hanna was called in to the gruesome scene in Zanesville, just a short drive out I-70 east of Columbus, where a crazed exotic animal collector killed himself and set many dozens of beautiful but extremely dangerous animals free. Most of the animals were killed by police, because authorities had determined that it would be impossible to tranquilize and capture them safely in the dark. Hanna, who has given his career to saving and caring for animals, helped track down the freed animals and defended the sheriffs' decision to kill them.
Animal rights activists, who have no use for zookeepers like Hanna, are all over him and the authorities for their participation in the slaughter. Which is one more burden to bear in a week that will no doubt haunt Hanna for a lifetime. At least he went to bed knowing that human life was protected, which seems like the right call to us. There were 18 Bengal tigers and 17 lions roaming around, along with six black bears, two grizzlies, and three mountain lions on the loose, in the dark, all at once. That they are now dead is an abomination, but we wouldn't blame the people who pulled the triggers.
Three leopards, a grizzly, and two monkeys were saved.
| Posted at 8:03 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (14)
Except for the part about being shot dead, the lions and tigers probably had a nice evening out.
Posted by Allan L. | October 20, 2011 8:27 AM
In Ohio where there were no meaningful restrictions against idiots keeping wild and exotic animals, I do not see what else could have been done.
Maybe now there will be some changes to prevent this from happening again.
Posted by Portland Native | October 20, 2011 8:39 AM
I have a confession to make: When the story first broke, and there was a dead man and all the animals were on the loose, I thought one of the animals had jumped him and then freed the others.
My bad.
Posted by Bill McDonald | October 20, 2011 8:53 AM
An unhappy but probably necessary end. I'm not an animal rights activist but I find the photographs of those magnificent beasts lying dead disturbing, and wondering, did it have to be this way?
Posted by boycat | October 20, 2011 8:56 AM
I definitely wouldn't blame him. In a situation like this, he can offer advice, but that's tempered by concerns both for the safety of humans and other animals in the vicinity. I can't blame anybody for how this ended, as sad and as maddening as this may be: it's not like this twit obligingly called the police a week before he shot himself and said "Umm...I might leave the gate open, so get ready."
(I used to raise reptiles, and I still have a lot of friends who do so to this day. They're understandably concerned about how this is going to affect their abilities to own and care for large reptiles, such as pythons or monitors. The best bit of advice I ever received on the subject came from someone in Portland when I lived there: "Police your own and make sure you're beyond complaint, or else someone else will police your ass for you.")
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | October 20, 2011 8:56 AM
I wonder what the people condemning the killing of the animals would think had one of those tigers killed one of their children?
I'm thinking the tune would have changed pretty fast....
Hypocrites.
Posted by thaddeus | October 20, 2011 9:02 AM
"Maybe now there will be some changes to prevent this from happening again."
Yeah sure. Get the politicians and bureaucrats busy crafting extensive policies to prohibit crazed maniacs.
What wold that look like?
A prohibition of anyone keeping wild and exotic animals but government?
Because no animal has ever escaped from a zoo?
Posted by Ben | October 20, 2011 10:17 AM
Another indication that we have gone freak'n crazy.
May all of these critters find a better place in the next go around.
Posted by Ralph Woods | October 20, 2011 10:22 AM
Hold on. The Muskingum County authorities wouldn't allow the nearby Columbus Zoo experts to tranq & save any of them. The destruction included 18 rare endangered Bengal tigers.
The Sheriff's office admitted to having responded in the past to dozens of complaints of animal abuse, neglect and cruelty at that exotic animal prison -- without doing what was necessary to stop it. Even with some logistical and financial challenges (temporary care for the captive animals), those are not difficult cases to effectively and efficiently manage.
The authorities in Zanesville & Muskingum County must share the blame for this horrific outcome. Those animals should have been long gone and protected when that sick man snapped.
Zanesville Animal Massacre Included 18 Rare Bengal Tigers
http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-animal-preserve-owner-suicide-animals-loose/story?id=14767017
And, while he's had cute moments on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, Jack Hanna is not so heroic, Jack.
Hanna just projects a folksy, "absent-minded professor meets Marlin Perkins" persona with a great agent and publicity machine behind him. He regularly says stupid, flippant, and incorrect things, btw.
Most of all, Hanna's the top shill for the Animal Slavery for Human Entertainment industry.
Killer Whale Video: Jane Velez-Mitchell And Jack Hanna Shout Over Shamu Tragedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNHwSmh7nYw
Jeff Corwin and Jean-Michel Cousteau are much more thoughtful and ethical spokespeople and advocates for animal-human relationships, and the conservation & preservation of animals and their habitats.
Posted by Mojo | October 20, 2011 11:02 AM
Jean-Michel Cousteau's Statement on Captivity of Free Range Wild Animals for Entertainment & Profit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp8MkPyBE5A
Posted by Mojo | October 20, 2011 11:03 AM
I'm with Mojo here, and am totally sick about this story. There should be regular inspections and monitoring of people who privately keep menageries like this--if not an outright prohibition.
I remember the old "Bring Them Back Alive" guy, Frank Buck. Of course there's a difference between capturing in the wild and what happened here, but I can't help but wonder if Buck would have found a way to save more animals. Like maybe martial law for 12 hours, keeping people in their homes, a concerted effort with nets, tranquilizers, any non-lethal means.
It's pie in the sky to think this way, the authorities would never risk human life, they couldn't justify it. But I'm just sick about these magnificent animals.
Crack down, never again!
Posted by Mark Ellis | October 20, 2011 2:58 PM
Hanna's not the animal control officer in the county. And he's not in the state legislature. Of course these jerks shouldn't have been allowed to run their awful, inhumane private zoo. But there wasn't much Jack Hanna could have done about it.
He had no duty to anyone yesterday, either, but funny thing, with life and limb on the line, Cousteau wasn't available.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 20, 2011 3:55 PM
Given the fact that Bengals are so endandered, it's criminal that private ownership is still allowed. With less than 3000 in the wild, the lost of 18 is a terrible blow to the genetic pool. Maybe they could spend a bit less time on Snail Darters, and bit more on the stewardship of Bengals.
Posted by HMLA-267 | October 20, 2011 8:35 PM
That was a time bomb waiting to happen and anyone with a brain knew it. And the animals pay the price. Lame man. And what is going to be done? Some politico will champion the cause, get some votes, and push through a bill that is complex, hard to regulate and does nothing to stop it from happening again.
It's just sad on so many levels. And think about how terrible the deputies must feel having to simply blow away such beautiful creatures. Damn I hate it.
Posted by Jo | October 20, 2011 11:37 PM