Exotic Animal Hearings Continue In Columbus

Dozens of Exotic Animal owners in Ohio were lining up Tuesday to oppose permit fees, certain caging requirements and other proposed regulations contained in a bill being considered by a State Senate Panel.  The measure would ban new ownership of exotic animals, while allowing current owners to keep their pets by obtaining a permit by 2014.  They’d be required to pass a background check and obtain insurance with meeting other rules.  Evelyn Shaw of Pataskala told State Senator Troy Balderson of Zanesville and other State Senators the bill would force her to euthanize her animals or keep them illegally.  She said the fees are too expensive.  Effort to strengthen the State’s law took on new urgency in October when Muskingum County Sheriff’s Deputies were forced to killed 48 wild animals after their suicidal owner, Terry Thompson freed them from his farm on Kopchak Road.