Carcasses lay on the ground at the Muskingum County Animal Farm on Wednesday in Zanesville, Ohio. Sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals, including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions, after Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County Animal Farm threw their cages open Tuesday and then committed suicide. Photo from AP
Laissez-faire capitalism means that there should be nothing that interferes with buying and selling and making money. Not regulation, not enforcement of any kind; everything is supposedly fixed by the invisible hand of the market place.
Bullshit. We need regulation and enforcement of fraud in all markets, but most of all in the dark markets that are as opposite of transparent as it is possible to be, and where there is no level playing field for the participants, and where some are predators on others.
The trade and ownership of exotic animals is another are of commerce that should be strictly regulated and only narrowly allowed, with more regard for the wellfare of the animals than greedy profits or for the supposed property rights of the irresponsible owner. The choices of these people, of this man who SHOT HIMSELF with a firearm that was arguably originally LEGAL, endangered others, and no invisible hand of the market fixed this. The intervention of paid union-member government employees had to fix this.
Those who claim property rights are next to godliness, those who believe government should be smaller, those who believe unions are thugs do not appreciate or acknowledge the importance of those people and the relative right of property coming second to the right for other people to be safe.
I hate to find myself anywhere near, much less on the same side, as that jerk Wayne Pacelle or the dangerous extremists of PETA. But they are perfectly correct that the ownership of exotic animals poses an unacceptable risk to too many people, as well as not being good or healthy for the animals either.
From MSNBC.com:
Ohio owner of exotic animals was deep in debt
Ohio owner of exotic animals was deep in debt
Sheriff says an animal bit the owner after he shot himself
"Surely, after this latest incident, enough blood has been shed for the state to take action," the group said in a statement.
Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.
This article contains reporting from The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff.