A man is found dead on his property and the cages of his exotic animals are all unlocked and opened. The animals have escaped and are running free in a small town while police try to find them. It sounds like a good mysterious, police novel, doesn't it? Sadly, it's a true story. As I turned on the news yesterday morning and heard this news story, I thought for sure someone was making something up or that I was hearing things wrong. Not so...I heard it correctly. In the morning when I heard it, they didn't know or say what happened to the man, just that he was dead. People in town were calling 911 to report seeing a lion and a bear loose from this man's property. Police arrived to see the man on the ground, dead, with some animals around him and other animals roaming. The police were quite familiar with this man, he has had these exotic animals for a while and the authorities were constantly dealing with him about one of them getting loose, or some of the deplorable conditions that the animals were subjected to. He had been to prison a time or two because of these things. The police now had to deal with these wild animals that were loose. There were lions, Bengal tigers, a Siberian tiger, cheetahs, black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, camels, giraffes and monkeys. Over 50 animals had been let out of their cages and were roaming around the streets. The police did try to tranquilize one of the cats, but it went wild and kept running. Sadly they had to just shoot it, it was night time and who knows where it could have ended up, so for their own safety and the safety of the general public it had to be done. The police knew they had a dangerous situation on their hands. It was now night and trying to find and tranquilize these animals at night would have been too difficult. The sheriffs just wanted to keep the public safe. If the tranquilizers didn't take much effect, the animals could have escaped into the night causing danger to the people. So the deputy sheriff had to make a tough decision to have his men "shoot to kill" each of these escaped animals. As I have heard many people share, "this is sad on all levels". First, the state laws could have been changed to keep from allowing this man to have exotic animals, second he should never have been allowed to still have all of these animals if he wasn't caring for them properly, and last this man knew that opening these cages would put a death sentence on these animals that he loved so much. Of course there are those who are quite upset that these animals were killed. As much of an animal lover as I am, I hated seeing that happen to these animals, but I understood why they needed to do this. Yes, I am a real animal lover...in fourth grade I had to write a paper about things that I looked forward to being able to do when I was an adult, or something like that. After writing that I really wanted to wear high heels when I got older, I wrote that I really wanted to have a farm with dogs, cats, horses, chickens, cows, and ducks...or something similar to that. I have always so badly wanted to work in a zoo, or even just be allowed to feed some cute little monkey, or tiger cub, or my favorite animal...panda bear. I really hope sometime to enjoy the beluga whale or penguin programs at Mystic Aquarium. You can get in the water with the beluga whales and feed them, or go in a private room and get to see penguins up close, would LOVE that!! Anyway, as much as I love animals, I felt that the police were justified in doing what they did. Human life is more important. Many don't feel that way in today's society...it's OK to kill an unborn child, but considered barbaric to kill animals that pose a danger human life. This is a backward way of thinking. Even Jack Hanna, who I admire because he gets to be around animals all the time and knows so much about them and takes great care of them, even he said that this was what the police had to do. He also said he was going to do as much as he possibly can to ensure that nothing like this happens again. There were still a few animals that were in the house and he is taking those to the Columbus Zoo, where he is the director. Some story...
Lord, help us to value human life. You created man, and gave man dominion over the animals. When we are more upset over animals than innocent children being killed, there is something wrong with that thinking. We of course should desire to care for your creation and the animals you have placed on the earth, and not wrongfully mistreat them for our own means. In the same breath we should desire to care for the children you have created, without mistreating them for our own selfish desires and means.
No comments:
Post a Comment