As the recent tragedy in Zanesville, Ohio so painfully illustrated, there’s no good reason for individuals to keep dangerous predators as pets, and the outcome is inevitably disastrous—for the people who are put at risk, for the wild animals themselves who are confined in unnatural settings that fail to meet their complex needs, and, in this case, the animals who met such an untimely and violent death.
There would be widespread public outrage if a city, say, hired sex offenders to operate a child day care center, or hired dogfighters to run an animal shelter. It seems absurd but the local government in Honolulu, Hawaii, appears to be going down this path.
It was headline news around the globe this week when Terry Thompson opened the cages at his private menagerie in Zanesville, Ohio, and then shot himself. Local responders combed the neighborhood with helicopters and infrared technology trying to track down the wild animals and protect the public. The 50 or so escaped animals included tigers, lions, cougars, wolves, grizzly and black bears, a baboon, and macaque monkeys.
Last week’s rescue of more than 160 Malamutes from a Montana puppy mill that was selling sick puppies over the Internet underscores once again the need for more oversight of large-scale commercial dog breeding operations, especially online sellers.
The Obama Administration’s record on animal welfare so far has been mixed. On the plus side, the Agriculture and Interior Departments have made progress on important policy issues such as improving humane slaughter enforcement, tightening the rules banning double-decker trucks for shipping horses to slaughter, considering an endangered listing for captive chimpanzees, proposing a ban on the trade in large constrictor snakes, and, following up on an act of Congress, producing a rule to restrict the imports of dogs from foreign puppy mills.
Much of the attention in Congress is focused on deficit reduction and partisan gridlock, but some bipartisan bills are still making progress. Yesterday the House unanimously passed a package of veterans' health care legislation (H.R. 2074), and included in the final bill was the Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act (H.R. 198), introduced by Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., which will help pair vets with pets and is good for both soldier and canine.
In most states, nonprofit animal shelters and rescue groups are praised for their efforts to find homeless dogs and cats new and loving homes. They are not regarded as ordinary commercial enterprises any more than a food bank or a battered women’s shelter.
Today I am posting the second installment of the “Animals & Politics” podcast, hosted by Patrick Ferrise, where I discuss a package of proposals to save more than $1 billion in federal spending on wasteful programs that harm animals. Click on the player below to listen, or click here
As the White House and the 12-member congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction work to reduce the federal debt by a total of about $1.5 trillion over 10 years, there are a number of wasteful programs that harm animals and should be in their sights. By reforming these programs, we can reduce the federal deficit by more than half a billion dollars, making government run better and finding a new way forward for wildlife management and 21st century science.
