Posted: 31 Aug 2010 10:10 PM PDT

By the Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The bear that recently killed a caretaker in a Cleveland suburb was the latest example of animal violence in a state that has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.

After a standoff between the Humane Society and agriculture interests, state officials are crafting restrictions on the ownership of dangerous wild pets. But the killer beast and others owned by former bear-wrestling entrepreneur Sam Mazzola, who had lost his federal license to exhibit exotic animals, would have been grandfathered out of them.

"It's just a free-for-all in Ohio, and Sam Mazzola is just an example of that," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. "Tigers, wolves, bears in a suburban Lorain County community: It is a disaster waiting to happen."

The death in Ohio and attacks elsewhere — including the maiming of a Connecticut woman by her friend's pet chimpanzee and a 2-year-old Florida girl squeezed to death by her family's python — highlight that the patchwork of federal, state and local laws on keeping dangerous wild animals at home has loopholes.

Mazzola had the proper state permit to keep the black bear, a species native to Ohio, on his property. He also kept wolves, tigers and a lion, something he was free to do because Ohio and at least four other states — Alabama, Idaho, Missouri and Montana — impose few or no restrictions on the ownership of non-native animals kept solely as pets, according to a review of state regulations by The Associated Press.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates animals exhibited to the public, but not private ownership. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires permits for native endangered and threatened species, but doesn't track non-native, endangered species unless they cross state borders.

The Humane Society cut a deal this year with Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and leading farm groups that traded pulling an animal cruelty measure off the November ballot for certain animal protections, including a ban on exotic pets. Farm groups opposed the ballot measure, which would have imposed treatment and caging requirements on livestock, as threatening to Ohio's $93 billion agricultural industry.

Under the original version of the proposed Ohio regulations, owners could have kept existing dangerous pets like Mazzola's but would not have been able to breed them or replace them when they died.

But Gov. Ted Strickland has now ordered that the new rules allow the state to pull animals away from owners who have engaged in misconduct, such as losing their federal license, spokeswoman Amanda Wurst said Tuesday. The rules will not ban exotic animals from zoos, research centers and existing athletic mascot programs, she said.

According to a database of publicized exotic-pet escapes and attacks since 1990 kept by the animal rights group Born Free USA, Ohio ranks fifth in the number of episodes that hurt or killed a human — 14. The leader, Florida, has had 43, followed by Texas with 19, New York with 18 and California with 16. Alabama ties Ohio with 14.The Ohio bear attack occurred Aug. 19 when caretaker Brent Kandra, 24, took the animal out of its cage for feeding at Mazzola's menagerie. Mazzola's federal license to exhibit the bear was revoked after animal rights activists complained about his practice of taking money to let people wrestle Ceasar, another bear he owned. But he was still free to keep the animals.

After a friend's 200-pound pet chimpanzee mauled and blinded a Connecticut woman in 2009, state lawmakers voted to ban ownership of large primates and other potentially dangerous animals, such as bears, leopards and wolves.

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Humane Society threatens to revive cruelty ballot issue - Canton Repository

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 09:24 AM PDT

The Humane Society is threatening to revive a planned Ohio ballot issue against animal cruelty if a deal with farmers fails to win final state approval.

Humane Society of the United States chief Wayne Pacelle on Tuesday urged the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to adopt the agreement on farm animal protections. It was hammered out in June with help from Gov. Ted Strickland.

Ohio Agriculture Director Robert Boggs tells The Columbus Dispatch that the board will consider other proposals, too.

Pacelle told the panel the deal is both good politics and good policy.

Its provisions include bans on certain crates and cages and the use of strangulation to put animals down.

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch

Bedbugs prefer people to pets - Columbus Dispatch

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 03:02 AM PDT

Pet owners worried that bedbugs will dine on their dogs and cats should take heart.

Those pesky little bloodsuckers would much rather dine on you.

"People are an easier meal to get," said veterinarian Tina Wismer of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

And, according to Ohio State University entomologist Susan Jones, human blood is easier for bedbugs to digest than your pet's blood.

Wismer said the ASPCA has been answering numerous questions from pet owners in response to recent reports about the growing threat of bedbugs.

Pest-control company Terminix released a list this week of where bedbugs are biting the most. New York City topped the list, but four Ohio cities also made it: Cincinnati ranked fourth; Columbus, seventh; Dayton, eighth; and Cleveland, 14th.

Bedbugs seek out cats and dogs, and even birds, if humans aren't around, Wismer said. But unlike fleas, they don't live on animals. They suck blood for 3 to 12 minutes, then fall off and scuttle away to hide.

That means animals don't need to be treated with chemicals to keep bedbugs away, but the infested house does.

Like flea bites, bedbug bites itch. But the bites are more distinctive looking, with red, raised bumps, often in a row, Wismer said. "They're more like mosquito bites. And you won't see the bugs crawling on your animal."

Jones said pet owners who find bedbugs in their home should wash pet bedding in hot water and dry it in a hot dryer to kill any of the pests in hiding. Thirty minutes in a dryer with temperatures above 120 degrees will rid clothes, pillows and other items of the bugs, she said.

If pesticides are used to get rid of bedbugs, pet owners should discuss their safety with a veterinarian and an exterminator before application, Wismer said.

Though bedbugs are frequently found in mattress seams, they'll also hide behind draperies, headboards, hanging pictures and dressers as well as in living-room chairs and cracks and crevices in any room, Jones said. "It's really a misnomer to call them bedbugs."

She described the problem as "out of control" in Ohio.

"Virtually anyone can get them," she said. "It has nothing to do with cleanliness. Everybody, any living, breathing human being, should worry about bedbugs."

Jones has been studying the bugs since 2004 and is a member of three task forces working on their control.

The local one, the Central Ohio Bedbug Task Force, recently began training firefighters on how to keep bedbugs from infesting fire stations. The group also has trained school nurses to spot them in schools and is encouraging school officials to send notes home to parents if bedbugs are detected in their buildings.

The problem has worsened since the 1990s for a number of reasons: The bugs became resistant to pesticides that used to kill them. Stronger pesticides were banned. People travel more and bring bedbugs home in suitcases.

Plus, Jones said, many people don't know that bedbugs are a threat.

"They think it's a myth or an old wives' tale," she said. "We need public awareness to get rid of them."

For more information about bedbugs, go to www.centralohiobedbugs.org.

kgray@dispatch.com

Pets Zone

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

“States grapple with exotic — and dangerous — pets - New Haven Register” plus 2 more

“States grapple with exotic — and dangerous — pets - New Haven Register” plus 2 more

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