Why The Ohio Police Used Bullets—And Not Tranquilizers
Fearing the animals would scatter and terrorize the town, officers began dispatching the wildlife with their pistols.
“These animals were on the move and were showing aggressive behavior,” said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.
“There were some very close calls,” the sheriff said. At times it was “almost hand to hand” combat with the animals, Lutz said.
“These are 300 pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down,” he said.
Also:
A vet shot one tiger with a tranquilizer from 15 yards away and Lutz said it “just went crazy,” and started to run, so officers were forced to shoot it with lethal ammunition. Another animal that got away, described as a big cat, was hit by a car on a highway some distance away, he said.
Sounds like it was all around a pretty intense situation, where the police faced the prospect of fighting Bengal tigers in a hand-to-hand combat situation, and opted to use force. Still. Sucks.
Well done, Ohio. Well done.
(via)
Terrible. As RachelinBrooklyn just pointed out: “18 Bengal tigers were killed today and there are only 1,400 left in the world. The whole thing is so fucked up”
And then there’s this, which alleges to be a photo of the animals shot dead in Ohio after their owner released them from their cages. Note: this is unconfirmed and taken from Facebook, says HuffPo’s social media editor. But…the wet weather & animals described in news reports fit.
Last night, lions, bears, tigers and other dangerous animals escaped from a preserve in Zanesville, OH. The local police have warned residents to stay indoors — and remain alert.
Last year, Fresh Air ran a piece on the dangers of owning exotic animals.
(via npr)
Endangered Sea Turtles Drowning In Shrimp Nets, Groups Sue For More Protection →
(Source: sustainable-sam)
Japan Considers End to Antartic Whaling
Sweet.
Here’s your good news Friday post….
(via sustainable-sam)
Breaking: Wolves Lose Federal Protection in Wyoming →
In another blow to the wolf, the secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, said Thursday that he had struck a deal with Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming to take the state’s wolves off the endangered species list and out from under federal protection.
Source: NYTimes Green
My suspicion is that Obama cut a deal with Mead re: debt ceiling. We’ll see.
Update: There are only about 340 wolves alive in Wyoming. Source: Wyoming Tribune
(via sustainable-sam)
good:
Be forewarned that this video is extremely graphic, but also, in context, extremely important:
Though we just ended our month-long challenge to go vegetarian, an increasingly common piece of proposed legislation has us diving back into the meat-eating debate today. In a piece from yesterday called “Banned From the Barn,” New York Times food writer Mark Bittman covers several recent bills proposed in Florida, New York, Iowa and Minnesota whose core purpose was always the same: To make it illegal for people to take photos or video footage of agricultural facilities. In other words, our farmers don’t want us to see what they’re doing.
Why so secretive? Just watch the above (and very graphic) video for the answer. It was filmed at the Iowa Select Farms pig facility in Kamrar, and it depicts conscious piglets having their genitals and tails removed without anesthetic and conscious pigs being smashed headfirst into the concrete by sadistic handlers. This is how meat is made on factory farms in America, and it makes sense that meat producers don’t want you to see this stuff—would you want your bacon coming from a hellish nightmare like Iowa Select, or the dozens of other factory farms that commit similar abuses day after day?
