Subscribe to the blog by RSSThe Exotic Pet Problem in Ohio’s Living Room
Last month, 24-year-old Brent Kandra was fatally mauled by a captive black bear at the private residence of notorious exotic animal dealer and exhibitor Sam Mazzola in Columbia Township, Ohio. Mazzola had four tigers, one lion, eight bears and a dozen wolves according to his May bankruptcy filing, and the recent death of a young man at his property has highlighted Ohio’s lack of any restrictions on the private possession of dangerous wildlife. Most states prohibit the keeping of animals such as lions and bears as pets, but Ohio has lagged far behind in failing to address this important animal welfare and public safety issue.
Gov. Ted Strickland has been working to correct this problem, and as part of an agreement reached in June with The HSUS, the Ohio Farm Bureau, and other groups, has pledged to ban the private ownership of dangerous wild animals, as well as advance other animal welfare reforms, on factory farming, puppy mills, and cockfighting. The urgency of the exotic animal component of this major animal welfare package is more clear than ever, and in recent weeks The Columbus Dispatch, The Lorain Morning Journal, and Brent Kandra’s mother, Deirdre Herbert, have called on state policymakers to swiftly implement regulations before another life is lost.
U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, who represents Ohio’s 13th district where Brent Kandra was killed, and who is a leading advocate for animal protection in Congress, has also written to Gov. Strickland and asked him “to move forward expeditiously to ban wild animals being kept as pets.” (Read Rep. Sutton’s letter here.) We are grateful to Rep. Sutton and to Gov. Strickland for working to advance critical animal welfare policies, and for calling attention to Ohio’s lack of any statewide rules prohibiting the private ownership of dangerous wild animals as pets.
The problem of exotic pet ownership has been getting national attention, not just in Ohio, and a new documentary film, The Elephant in the Living Room, shines a spotlight on the controversial American subculture of raising the most dangerous animals in the world as common household pets. The film by Michael Webber was the 2008 winner of The HSUS’s Animal Content in Entertainment grant, and recently was awarded the “Founder’s Choice Award—Best Documentary” by Academy Award winning director Michael Moore, who called it “one of the most scary, entertaining and technically perfect films.” While the movie is not due to be in wide release until early next year, Ohioans will get a sneak preview this October. If you live in Ohio, I hope you will check out this important film in one of the following cities:
Dayton
October 1–7
The Neon Movies
Yellow Springs
October 8–14
Little Art Theatre
Cleveland
October 15–21
Cedar Lee Theatre
Columbus
October 22–28
Drexel Theatre
Cincinnati
(Dates and locations TBA)
Michael Markarian is the president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization that lobbies for animal welfare legislation and works to elect humane-minded candidates to public office. In almost 15 years in the animal protection movement, Markarian has worked for the passage of countless state laws and federal statutes to protect animals, in addition to helping defeat some of the strongest anti-animal welfare politicians in the United States. 
