Escaped animals shot in Ohio, USA

DjFlin wrote: »

They had no choice but to shoot the animals.

Of course they did. They just didn't want to spend any time considering other options.

Hillbilly police officers who probably do a lot of hunting in their spare time and couldn't wait to do a bit of open-range hunting on exotic animals.

They started shooting before any experts even arrived FFS. Totally overestimated the possible public danger. Probably delighted with themselves now and trying to claim a couple of carcasses to use in their homes.

Morons.

seamus wrote: »

Instead of your post, you could have just posted this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo

Bit of perspective here please.

So after me saying ignore the fact that i made it up, you ignored the fact that i made it up. Exactly.

Also i hate the bull**** about "oh think of the kids" etc so what if it was your sister/brother best mate Mother/Father? The story is that these preditors were on the lose and possibly hungry. It's about protecting human life. The police should've had the tranquilisers but didn't. You cant expect them to wait around and hope nothing goes wrong while the wait for a delivery.

I'm not sure I see the problem. Predators were released into a populated area. Local police acted quickly to ensure the safety of the local population.

More than likely many of those animals would have had to have been put down even if recaptured if carers for them couldn't be found.

Call me what you like - i'd rather fifty dead animals than one dead child. Simple as.

In an ideal world - the police should have had the tranquilizers at the ready and should have taken all animals alive - but in an ideal world some gob****e wouldn't have topped himself and let 4 dozen wild and dangerous animals out in a populated area - it may be a rural area but Ohio is still the 9th most population dense area in the USA.

Doesn't matter what orders are issued, what if one house was overlooked - they never got the warning to stay in - kids out playing in the garden or in the next field over? Something terrible like this could have easily happened as they waited for the tranquilizers to arrive. Its not all that unlikely - better safe than sorry.

The choice was risk a human life or deal with the situation and shoot to kill the wild animals that would have been responsible. They couldn't take that risk. The correct choice was taken.

seamus wrote: »

You vastly overestimate the danger posed by these animals. Hungry or not, the very last thing they're going to do is start stalking around homes and people. They'd be afraid. Most of these animals hunt and feed in secrecy. Some loud noises and bright lights (the kind you find in houses) would scare them off.

You're no more likely to save anyone by flying around shooting them. If anything you risk scattering them more than they already are.
Even if your plan is to slaughter them, the first action should be containment - identify where they are (or where they could be) and try to keep them there. You could even quite easily bait them. Into the local butcher, abbatoir, a few tonnes of meat and scatter it around a small area, maybe 0.25 sq. km. This will attract most of the dangerous predators.

It's a small rural area, so you spread the word for everyone to stay in their homes and not try shoot one themselves. By this stage you'll have managed to flown in animal tranqs from somewhere. So a simple system of "tranq or die". If the animal doesn't go down when you tranq it, then you shoot it. I understand this is exactly what they did for one animal, but then decided, "Ah screw it" and issued a shoot-to-kill order. :rolleyes:

Haha
This post made me laugh.
Ok so spread out a few tons of meat in an area that is about the size of two football pitches. Great. Im guessing that would take about two hours to organise.
Im guessing a big bunch of scared animals wouldnt hand around for two hours especially if they were afraid of loud noises and lights.

So what happens if one of the tigers attack and kill while the meat is being put out? Would that be acceptable collateral damage?

I think you vastly underestimate the danger poised by an wild animal. Ive seen a bloody cow attack a man for no reason. Cant understand why a hungry lion wouldnt chance a child.

infact even a zoo keeper thinks 'they didnt have a lot of options'

The incident in which an Ohio man released his personal collection of 56 exotic animals before committing suicide Tuesday, was sad because the animals were innocent, Niabi Zoo director Mark Ryan said Wednesday.
Law enforcement officials had killed 48 of the escaped animals by Wednesday afternoon, including tigers, lions, bears, wolves and a baboon. Some of the animals were captured and taken to zoos. A monkey was the only animal on the loose.
Although local law enforcement officials were assisted by animal experts, including Tom Stalf, former director of Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Ill., and now senior vice president of the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium, their first duty was to protect the public from what a potentially dangerous animal could do, Ryan said.
"I'm not sure what their recourses were," he said. "It doesn't sound like they had a lot of options."
Ryan said accredited zoos, including Niabi, have protocols in place for what to do if an animal escapes its enclosure or the zoo property. Ryan said those protocols include cooperation with local police and the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department.
While Ryan said it is not uncommon for people to have large collections of exotic animals, he called the animals involved in the Ohio case "a bizarre list."
Ryan said people who decide to own exotic animals often learn quickly how difficult and expensive it can be to care for them. He said many states have begun to enact laws restricting the ownership of exotic animals out of concern for public safety and the welfare of the animals.
A law forbidding Iowa residents from owning "dangerous wild animals" went into effect in 2007, although Iowans who already owned such animals were allowed to keep them if they obtained a permit, said Dustin Vande Hoef, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Agriculture.
The list of "dangerous wild animals" includes large cats such as lions, tigers, leopards and cougars as well as elephants, rhinoceroses, apes, monkeys, crocodiles, alligators and venomous snakes.
Those who exhibit animals, such as public and private zoos, must have a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those who own the animals but do not exhibit them must have a permit from the state. Iowa has issued permits for private ownership of animals such as wolves, monkeys, a bengal tiger and a crocodile.


Read more: http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/zoo-director-calls-animal-escape-sad/article_1dc68336-fad5-11e0-9b76-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1bKjdpDBH

Get over your whole save the animals thing, with your ridiculous schemes for catching them again.
fact is it was the job of the police to protect people first and foremost and it sounds like they did a pretty good job of it.

Sundy wrote: »

Get over your whole save the animals thing, with your ridiculous schemes for catching them again.
fact is it was the job of the police to protect people first and foremost and it sounds like they did a pretty good job of it.

Dozens of endangered species were slaughtered preceisly because the police and other authorities didn't do their job earlier ie. removing these animals from the possesion of this unstable individual who had a string of convictions for neglect and cruelty!!:mad:

Birdnuts wrote: »

Dozens of endangered species were slaughtered preceisly because the police and other authorities didn't do their job earlier ie. removing these animals from the possesion of this unstable individual who had a string of convictions for neglect and cruelty!!:mad:

Dozens of what endangered species? I know this is afterhours but lets not go all tabloidy.

Birdnuts wrote: »

I suggest you do some research on the current status of Bengal Tigers and African Lions in the wild:rolleyes:

I suggest you learn how to count.

18 Bengali Tigers is not dozens and last I heard Lions are not considered an endangered species but a threatened one.

Do some research yourself and stop sensationalising.

Sundy wrote: »

I suggest you learn how to count.

18 Bengali Tigers is not dozens and last I heard Lions are not considered an endangered species but a threatened one.

Do some research yourself and stop sensationalising.

Ah thats fine so, only threatened you say - pity they didn't kill more isn't it:rolleyes:

PS: Lion populations in Africa have declined by nearly 90% in the last 30 years and their status will change to that of the Tigers when the next IUCN list is updated later this year.

On the magic solution of tranquilizing animals im afraid people tend to have hugh misconceptions on how well this works.

If you have seen it used on the wildlife programs thats fair enough.It is used in wild animals... but if you think about what you have seen there would not have been a scenario where it would not have been used on more than one maybe 2 animals at a time.Its not a good way of dealing with a large scale crisis.

Firstly even if you do have the equipment to be honest tranquilising animals with a dart gun is no easy task.The actual result is in no way reliable,and it all depends on the shot.You have to be able to hit muscle deep enough for the drug to enter the blood easily,but not a blood vessel,not bone,not fat,not exactly easy on a moving animal even for a trained marksman,let alone in a situation where its an emergency and you have many moving animals to contend with.

The most likely drug to be used,in fact as far as im aware its the only one that tends to be used in large dangerous animals,is immobilon,which is deadly to humans so if you prick yourself you have less than 5 minutes to grab your reversal dose which has to be ready to inject or you will die.
So that has to be handled with extreme care.Not ideal for a situation when your trying to shoot animals before they disappear out into the darkness.

Its also for obvious reasons not a common drug to have around,nor is the reversal agent used.Its not avaliable anymore in Ireland for example,bar to the dublin zoo vet and whoever is in charge of foto wildlife part.And even they are unlikely to have enough in stock to deal with more than a handfull of animals.

Then once the animal is down someone,most likely the vet who provided the drugs,has go over and evaluate the depth of the anaesthetic effect..if the marksman didnt hit the right area theres a very real chance that animal will react fearfully and attack someone who approaches,or if the drug hasnt worked fully or in some cases some animals simply do not seem to be affected by normal doses same scenario...a danger situation or an animal that runs away into the darkness in a state of fear.Oh and lets not forget stressed animals high on adreneline often do not react normally to tranquilisation.

Plus in this setting how are you ment to get near your tranquilized animal?chase the others away into the dark and hope they dont come back to investigate?

If they do leave you,loud bangs from a gun wouldnt really encourage them to stick around but you'd never no if they are semi tame what might happen,then you have wild animals that up until you arrived were still contained and easily controlled on the loose.
But if they are still in the area then you cannot deal with the animal you have tranquilised.Once you start shooting with your dart gun taking time to carefully hit each animal in the correct places...how many do you think you can hit before the others scatter?
oh and you also only have a short timeframe to get to your original tranquilized animal before it starts to come around as well...

Plus what did you plan to do with the tranquilsed ones?
Where were the animals ment to be contained by these police officers?we dont know that their cages were still secure.They would not have reinforced crates around to put them into once they are tranquilised.Cages for large animals like lions and tigers are a whole different ball game when it comes to needing to be secure.And how do you suggest that a handful of officers bring this animals back to the cages?you would need loads of people just to move the animals back a few hundred yards to their cages...and thats assuming that they will all stay tranquilized long enough and deep enough to move...

Those cops should be commended for their actions at protecting the public safety.
They reacted promptly,dealt with a hazard and contained a situation that could have got out of hand very easily.They also did,guns or no gun, take on a great personal risk in hunting down those animals before anyone could be hurt.hell they even tryed to use a tranquiliser gun at one point,and they seen just how much use it was by the sounds of things.

I do agree that it is a terrible think that so many endangered animals lost their lives.They were in no way to blame for where they ended up.Its their owner however who inflicted this on them.But I cannot see how this situation could have been handled better or safer given the circumstances.

Birdnuts wrote: »

Ah thats fine so, only threatened you say - pity they didn't kill more isn't it:rolleyes:

PS: Lion populations in Africa have declined by nearly 90% in the last 30 years and their status will change to that of the Tigers when the next IUCN list is updated later this year.

No id actually prefer none were killed but im sensible to know that this was a really difficult situation where the sheriff had to react straight away and naturally his first objective was safety.

Personally i love all kind of animals but i dont see the point in getting up in arms over a police man doing his job. Read the article posted before, even the a local zoo keeper agreed there wasnt much other option.
Private zoo's on the other hand are crazy unless extremely well regulated and id be all for the banning of import and export of all threatened and endangered animals, alive or dead unless already for the purpose of conservation.

Sundy wrote: »

Are you considering killing yourself to save the world?

No but I might consider other options that would help save the world :mad:.

It's such a shame to see such beautiful creatures dead. However can we please get things into perspective. To all those pontificating about the bloodthirsty cops, imagine walking into your front garden to find a pride of lions there. I'd imagine the last thing on anyone's minds would be, where are the tranquelizers.

Be realitic folks, it's all about safety and sadly in this case that meant the loss of some beautiful animals.