Blog 2: Animals on the Loose!
Zebras on the loose! Last week there was an elephant on the loose in Montana and this week zebras were seen running around the highway in Washington. The zebras managed to get out of their transport trailer that was on its way… Montana! Yep, the same place where a week earlier, an elephant had escaped from a circus and was wandering out busy streets. What’s with Montana and its association with escaped exotic animals? Luckily in both instances, all the animals were successfully re-captured without any harm to them or people. This could have been a hell of a lot worse and we’ve seen in the past, exotic animals escape and the outcome has been catastrophic. There has been circus elephants escape and injure people, leading to the animals having to be shot. I’m sure we all remember the 2011 incident in Zanesville, Ohio where exotic animal owner, Terry Thompson released 50 of his 56 animals before shooting himself in the head. Among the animals he released were 18 Bengal tigers, 6 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, 2 wolves, 1 macaque monkey, 1 baboon, 3 mountain lions, and 17 African lions (nine males and eight females). Of the 50 animals released by Thompson, 48 were shot and killed by police and 2 were eaten by some of the other animals. So every animal he released were killed. I remember seeing an interview with some of the police that were burdened or even cursed with the job of shooting these animals. They were absolutely devastated, scarred even. Seeing a magnificent creature like a lion or tiger, who’s only wrong doing was walking out of a cage to freedom after it was opened by a mentally unstable man and they are now ordered to shoot them dead. You may be thinking “why not just tranquilise them?”. Its not that simple. Tranquiliser guns are notoriously inaccurate. You miss the shot and now people’s lives are in danger. Unlike what you see in movies, Tranquilisers take time to kick in and in the time it takes for a large animal like a bear or tiger to be knocked out by a tranquiliser, it could have easily annihilated several people. With 50 of these animals on the loose, the police had no other option. I wish there was another method! I know these animals and what they’re capable of and how quickly they could end a human life. Trust me, it’s not long. I’m sure some of the animals were “tame” (I use that word loosely) but how are the police to know which ones are tame and which ones aren’t? It was the only option and I felt so sorry for the men and women that had to do it. They’re lives are changed and the lives of 50 beautiful animals were ended.
Anyway, I write this because unfortunately its not as uncommon as you think. Even here in Australia, where there is a blanket ban on most exotic animals. Hell, we need a license just to keep a snake that’s native to the area. Well, in 2020, 3 baboons escaped from a truck in Sydney. The truck was transporting them from a biomedical laboratory to the hospital (human hospital) to have a “procedure”. The baboons ran around town for a while before being captured and returned to the biomedical facility. Before this happened, I had no idea primates were even used for testing in Australia. In fact, the entire public of Australia didn’t know. I tried researching the laboratories and the companies that do this and basically found nothing. It was very secretive and hidden and I could tell the government didn’t want the public knowing this went on here. Well the cat’s (or should I say baboon’s) out the bag now! It’s hard to keep something a secret when it’s walking around town in broad daylight.
Anyway, I wanted to write this blog as I’m still shocked things like this are still happening. Also, what’s with Montana? They cursed when it comes to exotic animals? What do you think? Leave a comment with your thoughts or any events you can remember where exotic animals have escaped.
Cheers!
Adam.