6:00: Morning News

Legislation targets dangerous animals in WV

CHARLESTON, W.Va.– An incident at an Ohio farm in 2011 shined the spotlight on the lack of adequate legislation in West Virginia to deal with exotic animals. During the 2011 incident near Zanesville, Ohio 56 non-native animals including lions, tigers, bears, and wolves were shot by police when they escaped the captive facility and ran rampant through the local area.

The incident drew worldwide attention and exposed West Virginia’s lax regulations for the exotic animals. Many started to wonder, “What if it happened here?”

“Without appropriate laws and regulations we simply cannot protect the public from these threats,” said Paul Johansen Assistant Chief of Wildlife at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “There are currently no provisions in the code to guide for effective enforcement, establish criminal penalties, or initiate destruction orders when necessary.”

Johansen and representatives of the Department of Agriculture, and West Virginia Bureau of Public Health addressed the issue during this week’s interim committee meetings with state legislators. The three agencies have collaborated on the subject and come up with legislation they hope lawmakers will pass during the legislative session which starts in January.

The proposal is supported by the Humane Society of the United States.

“We’ve had tigers, lions, and bears to escape never to be caught again or to be shot,” said Summer Wyatt, Director of HSUS West Virginia. “There are multiple stories of alligators getting out and not just getting out, but being abandoned because when they get to large they are left in a water way.”

The legislation would create a Dangerous Wild Animal Control Board. The responsibilities of the board would be to come up with a list of species which would be prohibited from private ownership.  The bill would also allow for those who presently owned species to be banned to be grandfathered into the law, so long as they register the animals and meet certain safety requirements. The bill also allows the board to create exceptions to the law for things like a licensed circus, research facilities, and companion animals covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Really the intent of this bill is to know where these animals are located, to license these animals by county, and to know these individual owners have a plan if disaster happens,” Wyatt said. “To have proper vet care, proper fencing and caging for these animals so we can decrease human health risk.”

“No one knows just how many dangerous animals there are being held privately in captivity here in West Virginia,” Johansen added. “It results in a threat to our residents, our livestock, and our wildlife.”







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