Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, released the following statement in response to the news that two girls in Fremont, Ohio had been attacked by an escaped pet grivet monkey.
“Two children were attacked and traumatized by an escaped pet monkey in Fremont, requiring local law enforcement to chase the animal for nearly three hours during which multiple gunshots were fired.
Ohio must reinstate rules to forbid private citizens from keeping dangerous wild animals as pets. Cute and agreeable baby animals become aggressive and territorial as they mature, often resulting in the animals being doomed to a life of increasing isolation, loneliness and frustration.
This incident underscores the need for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to expedite the process already underway to establish such regulations. Most people don’t want tigers or chimps for neighbors, and we should not wait for another human or animal death to complete the job.”
Pacelle is in Ohio as part of a nationwide tour promoting his new best-selling book, The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them (William Morrow; $26.99), and discussed the need for new regulations at an event at The City Club of Cleveland this afternoon. He will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble-Franklin Park in Toledo at 7 p.m. this evening, with stops in Twinsburg, Dayton and Columbus over the next few days.
For more information on Ohio’s most inhumane and dangerous exotic animal owners, please see The HSUS special report, Ohio’s Fatal Attractions.
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