A Few Minutes With Jack Hanna
Posted by Patrick in Animals, Celebrities
The September 11th of the animal world.
That’s how legendary animal lover and Columbus Zoo Director Emeritus Jack Hanna describes the massacre of dozens of exotic animals in Zanesville, Ohio.
I had the honor of meeting Hanna when he stopped by my station’s newsroom to do live interviews via satellite on CNN and to record an interview for NBC’s Today.
The new development in the situation is that the wife of the man who released exotic animals from his wildlife refuge on October 18th, then took his own life showed up at the zoo this morning to pick up the six animals that had been saved. A young grisly bear, two Celebes macaques and three leopards comprise the survivors. Forty-nine others, including wolves, lions, tigers and bears, were shot to death by deputies.
She was unsuccessful in her attempt to reclaim the animals, after state officials refused to allow the animals to be released from a required quarantine. They have been in quarantine since being brought to the zoo, and will remain isolated for a total of 30 days so that veterinarians can fully examine them, treat any injuries or illness and detect any abnormalities or health issues that could impact other animals.
But that’s potentially only a temporary solution. He is trying to urge her to stop any attempt to reclaim the animals.
Hanna received undue public criticism after 49 animals were shot to death by deputies. While he says that he has cried multiple times after looking at photos of the massacre and thinking about the loss of the animals, he maintains that there was nothing else that could have been done.
The deputies, he said, were hopelessly outnumbered by the animals and had only four tranquilizer guns. With less than an hour of daylight left, firing tranquilizer darts at the animals wasn’t a practical option because the darts can take up to 20 minutes to take effect, during which the animal is not only agitated from unfamiliar surroundings, but also angry and frightened by being shot and feeling the effects of the sedative.
One of the tigers was, in fact, hit with a tranquilizer dart, but “went crazy,” according to officials, then had to be shot.
He told NBC and CNN that he is certain human lives would have been lost if the animals hadn’t been killed.
But he’s in no way flippant about the deaths of the animals. You can see it in his eyes. If this wasn’t Hanna’s worst nightmare, the situation into which he was thrust had to rank high on the list. And if that weren’t bad enough, he has even received death threats from angry animal lovers who can’t understand why the animals were killed.
Having been fortunate enough to spend time with him in between interviews, it’s more than clear to me that there are few people — if any — more passionate about animals than Hanna. And that there is absolutely no one on this planet more passionate than Hanna about urging lawmakers to pass strict laws governing ownership of exotic animals so that this kind of thing never happens again.
What happened in Zanesville was a tragedy. Thanks to people like Hanna and the work they’re doing, it’s a tragedy that need not ever happen again.
Welcome to Patrick’s Place, home of the Saturday Six and the Sunday Seven.
My boyfriend and I were upset that the animals had to be killed but we fully understand why after we heard the explanations. I hope that laws are passed to prevent people from owning such dangerous animals. This really was a tragedy.
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