Ohio to spread word about new exotic animal law

ANN SANNER

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — Ohio offi­cials are ramp­ing up their efforts to con­nect with ani­mal own­ers who now have to reg­is­ter their dan­ger­ous, wild crea­tures with the state.

Only one per­son has reg­is­tered since the law took effect on Sept. 5, accord­ing to the Ohio Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture. Three oth­ers tried, but turned in incom­plete forms. Their ani­mals also didn’t have a required microchip with iden­ti­fi­ca­tion implanted in them.

The state doesn’t know exactly how many peo­ple pos­sess such crea­tures, and that’s part of its chal­lenge. With­out a data­base or any required licenses, “there’s just no way of hav­ing some kind of direct mail­ing list of who owns these kinds of ani­mals,” said Erica Pitch­ford, a spokes­woman for the agri­cul­ture department.

Ohio’s restric­tions on exotic pets had been among the nation’s weak­est. Efforts to reg­u­late dan­ger­ous wildlife took on new urgency last fall, when a sui­ci­dal owner released dozens of exotic ani­mals, includ­ing black bears, lions and Ben­gal tigers.

“One of the biggest shocks that came of out last year was this idea that we don’t really know how many kinds of these ani­mals are in our state,” Pitch­ford said. “We don’t know where they are. Peo­ple don’t know that they could be right down their street.”

The law now allows the state to gather that infor­ma­tion and gives local law enforce­ment access to the database.

Own­ers must reg­is­ter the ani­mals with the state’s agri­cul­ture depart­ment by Nov. 5. They have to say where the crea­tures are, how many they have, what the ani­mals look like, and who their vet­eri­nar­ian is, among other details.

State offi­cials plan try to enlist vet­eri­nar­i­ans and an ani­mal own­ers’ group to spread the word about reg­is­ter­ing, Pitch­ford said. And the agri­cul­ture depart­ment has one employee ded­i­cated to han­dling calls from own­ers who have ques­tions about the new law and how to register.

“We’re try­ing to be as broad and out­reach­ing as pos­si­ble,” Pitch­ford said.

Work­ing with the Ohio Asso­ci­a­tion of Ani­mal Own­ers might not be easy.

The group had tried to get the new law scrapped as it was being debated by law­mak­ers, argu­ing it was unfair to owners.

The asso­ci­a­tion boasts more than 8,000 mem­bers, whose pets range from domes­tic cats to Ben­gal tigers.

Polly Brit­ton, a lob­by­ist for the asso­ci­a­tion, said it has made its mem­bers aware of the Novem­ber dead­line. But the group still is con­sid­er­ing a legal chal­lenge to the law, she said in an email on Friday.

The law bans peo­ple from buy­ing new dan­ger­ous exotic ani­mals, such as chee­tahs and croc­o­diles. Cur­rent own­ers can keep their crea­tures by obtain­ing a new state-issued per­mit by 2014. But they would have to pass a back­ground check, pay per­mit fees, obtain lia­bil­ity insur­ance and show inspec­tors that they can prop­erly con­tain the ani­mal and adhere to other standards.

Ohio offi­cials could seize the ani­mals if own­ers don’t meet the state’s require­ments or are found hous­ing an ani­mal with­out a permit.

If own­ers don’t reg­is­ter their ani­mals over the next two months, it’s likely the state could reject their per­mit appli­ca­tion to keep the creatures.

Fail­ing to reg­is­ter the ani­mals is a mis­de­meanor, and civil penal­ties also could be levied. If the state finds the non-registered ani­mals are a pub­lic safety issue, it can work with local author­i­ties to remove them.

“The law requires reg­is­tra­tion of these ani­mals,” Pitch­ford said. “It’s not voluntary.”

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