Big Cat Rescue could have been Zanesville 

 

Big Cat Rescue could have been Zanesville and it could happen any where.  For years to come people are going to be asking you if the Zanesville massacre was a freak event or if it could happen again.  While the following are not stories I want you sharing, I think it is important for you to understand just how dangerous it is to allow the private sector to keep dangerous wild animals, no matter how well intended the people may be.

 

My previous husband Don wasn't always crazy.  He was always a bit eccentric, thus the passion for collecting boats, planes and later big cats; but it wasn't until 1997 that he showed signs of clear dementia and was finally diagnosed as being bi-polar.  Sundari was born in 1996 and Don sneaked her off the property one day to take her out to yard sales with him to show off.  The reason people get big cats is because they want to show off.  Sundari never would walk on a leash, but rather did a great impression of the Winnie the Pooh character, Tigger, as she bounced endlessly and often over his head, as he would try to walk her.  Apparently he grew tired of her pouncing, biting and flipping out and put her in the van while he walked the neighborhood yard sale.

 

He didn't want her to get hot though, so he left the windows down.  It kind of gives you a sense for just how crazy he had become that he thought a full grown leopard would just sit in the van with the windows down.  I was at home and started getting calls from people saying there was a leopard running loose in their neighborhood.  I didn't know Don had taken her off property so I thought the first caller was hallucinating, but when there was a pattern in the same neighborhood, I began to wonder what the heck was going on.  Somehow Don managed to recapture her and came home and told me all about their adventures for the day and the calls began to make sense.

 

I began locking all of the dangerous cat cages.  It may interest you to know that there is still no state or federal requirement that there be locks on cages.  Don had a fit that I was locking him out of the cages so I made a HUGE ring of keys for him that really didn't open anything.  The ring was bigger than the one I carry now and I explained to him that every cage had to have a different key.  What I was counting on was that if he began trying to unlock a cage one of the volunteers, staff or I would catch him and divert his attention to something else.  He was obviously a danger to himself, to the cats and to the public.

 

This worked for a while, but sometimes he would get frustrated and just take bolt cutters to the cage.  You have surely noticed that there are squares cut out, all over the cages, that are big enough for a person to fit through, that have since been patched, but many of these were Don's handiwork.  Although I was taking him to specialists and trying to figure out what was wrong with him, the fact is that it is almost impossible to protect someone from their own mental deterioration unless they do something criminal.  Back in 1997 it wasn't criminal to take your leopard out for a walk in a neighborhood on a leash.  Any of you who are caring for elderly parents know how hard it was to get their car keys away from them.  Imagine if they owned 100+ dangerous predators how hard it would be to keep them out of trouble.

 

The fact of the matter is that the only people who hoard dangerous animals in their back yards are those who aren't normal to begin with.  When they finally go off the deep end tragedies like Zanesville are inevitable.  The only way to prevent such travesties is to ban the private possession of wild animals outside of accredited zoos and accredited sanctuaries so that there is someone, other than the government, making sure that things don't get out of hand.

 

Photo circa 1996 of Carole holding Sundari Leopard.  We do not display photos of people touching cats after 2004.

Zanesville Timeline

10/18/