EnviroLink Forum

I am not a professional on the control of exotic and wild animals, however I do find it very mortifying and saddening that the police did not find a better way of handling the escape of all of those lions, bears, camels etc... killing them was so wrong. Don't they have tranquilizers or some way of luring them into cages? I don't know.... open for discussion! What do you all think?

According to the news reports, the situation unfolded near dark. Most of the animals killed are nocturnal hunters so they would be active and pose a risk to human life and safety. The Department of Natural Resources has tranquilizers and trapping equipment, but the experience would be limited to smaller bears. The tigers and lions, which were the majority of the animals killed would require a much different dosage and/or different drugs than they would normally use. the trapping or attampt at tranquilizers after dark would put all of those people at risk from attack by those predators. There was little which could have been done after the animals were released without risk to people ... even the shooting of the loose animals created a risk. A 600 pould cat is dangerous, but a wounded 600 pound cat can be a killer.

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“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
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Albert Einstein

Very interesting. I didn't realize there would be a need for different doses of tranquilizers etc. I also didn't consider what a wounded animal could have done. I guess when it does come down to it, human life is more important.

Yes, there is a dosage based on weight, which is why most smaller people can get drunk on less alcohol than most larger people. That dose to weight is hard to meet when the exotic animals may weigh several times what the native animals do. There is a tiger preserve nearby, which I have visited and seen the difference in the sizes of just the tigers. The largest Bengal tiger at this facility was over 650 pounds and in comparison the average female black bear is only ~175 pounds and the average male black bear is only ~300 pounds. Just on a pound to pound application there would have to be over twice the dosage for the tiger than the average bear.

The tigers all came from "pets" who had grown too large but they were more than capable of quickly doing a lot of damage even in play.

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With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

HSUS did approve it. Those animals were like dead to their ancestral populations. Animals in zoos, especially big predators, are rarely returnable to the wild. We should preserve the habitats instead of keeping them in private zoos.

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Hunt with dogs

Yea absolutely. I agree that preservation is key to saving many of the endangered species. It is very difficult to get funding for it however. That is something that needs to be more actively addressed.

It seemed this guy was like out local tiger preserve in that a private entity was taking in the animals others could not or would not take. A zoo will not take a "pet" tiger in most cases. The local preserve said a large percentage of their tigers were just dropped off after hours. Some were brought in from other areas because no suitable means could be found to house them. A couple came from commerical locations where the animals were used as an attraction until they got too large.

They were not kind to a "preserve" at Myrtle Beach SC that makes a lot of money selling pictur opportunities with their cubs because since the cubbs grow so quickly that group has to have a steady stream of young cubs coming in to maintain their picture revenue. Thus, they are contributing to the population of animals which may be hard to place in any setting.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein