Ohio governor to crack down on exotic pets

ZANESVILLE, Ohio?? Gov. John Kasich announced Friday he'll sign an executive order cracking down on dangerous exotic pets, just days after an animal collector set dozens free and committed suicide.

Kasich had let an order from the previous administration cracking down on the ownership of exotic animals expire this spring, arguing it lacked legal authority and would have been difficult to enforce.

A stakeholders' group has been working to draft permanent legislation on the issue.

Activists have complained that Ohio has some of the nation's laxest regulations on exotic pets.

Police were forced to shoot most of the animals freed this week to ensure public safety. They included tigers, bears and lions.

Newly released documents show multiple complaints that the owner had kept some wild animals in barely secured cages.

Authorities and animal experts went to Terry Thompson's property three years ago and found some cages weren't padlocked and were held together with plastic ties.

They also thought the fences were low enough to allow the animals to get out.

Authorities also questioned Thompson and his wife about animal bodies found in a ravine they called the "dead hole."

Thompson's wife, Marian, told a detective in one 2005 sheriff's report released Friday she was trying to stop her husband from bringing in so many animals.

The complaints said Thompson also starved cattle at one farm.

Thompson's collection of exotic creatures was no secret to neighbors or authorities who were called many times over the years about animals wandering away. But their escape this time was no accident.

Authorities say Thompson, 62, released more than 50 animals from the Muskingum County Animal Farm before killing himself. Dozens of escaped tigers, lions and other beasts were shot to death by officers.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44990032/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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