Humane Society asks Gov. Strickland to immediately ban wild animals as pets



CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The leader of the nation's largest animal protection organization called on Gov. Ted Strickland Wednesday to ban private ownership of dangerous animals following the killing of a Lorain County man by a bear.



Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said Strickland must act before another person is killed by animals that are too dangerous to be pets.



Brent Kandra, 24, an employee at Sam Mazzola's Columbia Township exotic animal farm, was feeding one of nine black bears Aug. 19 when the bear fatally slashed Kandra.



Ohio is one of 20 states that has no law prohibiting private ownership of dangerous, non-native animals. It is one of the top two states for exotic animals sales and auctions.



Strickland and other leaders of the state's agricultural businesses agreed on July 21 to a plan to improve the treatment of farm animals and ban wild animals in captivity. The rules would not apply to zoos, circuses or animal rescue and rehabilitation operations.



The agreement calls for the departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources to "coordinate and take action on wild and dangerous animals including the prohibition of the sale and/or possession of big cats, bears, primates. . . snakes, alligators and crocodiles."



Strickland is committed to the agreement, a spokeswoman said, but will allow the rule-making process to go through.



"There will be hearings and then the changes will be presented to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review," said spokeswoman Amanda Wurst. "The committee has the authority to change the rules."



The governor hopes the rules will be approved by year's end, she said.



Pacelle said Kandra's death made the need to ban exotic animal ownership immediate. He said the order would prevent people from breeding, buying, selling or trading new exotic animals. People with exotic animals would be grandfathered in.



But there would be one exception -- Sam Mazzola.



"He should not be permitted to keep his animals in light of all the problems he's had over the years," Pacelle said.



Mazzola could not be reached Wednesday to comment.



He and his animals have a storied history of run-ins with authorities that dates back to at least 1986 when Mazzola kept Caesar, a 700-pound bear, at the Creekside condominiums in Brunswick Hills.



For 20 years, Mazzola traveled the bar-and-carnival circuit, offering people -- many of them drunk -- the chance to wrestle Caesar or one of his other bears.



Some of Mazzola's critics hoped the bear show was over in 2008 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cracked down on Mazzola, stripping him of a federal license to exhibit exotic animals and fining him nearly $14,000 for refusing to allow an inspection of an exhibit and threatening federal officials.



But that did nothing to separate Mazzola from the animals he says he loves.



In September, Mazzola pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two charges of exhibiting and selling exotic animals without a license. He was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to do 250 hours of community service.



Emphasis in bold is mine (W.W.)



Source: blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/08/gov_strickland_asked_to_immedi.html

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