Two weird and very sad events, hard to read about, juxtaposed in animal news. This one in Ohio, a state that has its share of spooky, Fortean events in general: Ohio wild-animal killings renew call for ban on exotic pets - latimes.com.

The owner of Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, Ohio, apparently flung open the reserve's cages, slashed open its pens and then killed himself. Dozens of wild and dangerous animals -- including grizzly bears, lions, tigers and a baboon -- were then free to roam the area. Most of them were gunned down by public safety officers.

Ohio law enforcement officials were at an immediate loss to explain why the farm's owner, Terry Thompson, did what he did. Instead, they were focused on protecting citizens, who were told to stay behind closed doors while wild animals roamed the area. Where they could, authorities tried to recapture the animals using a tranquilizer gun.

From the Huffington Post:

It's like Noah's Ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," lamented Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo.

Hanna defended the sheriff's decision to kill the animals but said the deaths of the Bengal tigers were especially tragic. There are only about 1,400 of the endangered cats left in the world, he said.

"When I heard 18 I was still in disbelief," he said. "The most magnificent creature in the entire world, the tiger is."

According to the Huffington Post, Ohio "has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets." Not surprisingly, it follows that, according to the HP, that Ohio is "...among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them."

Hopefully something positive will come from this very sad event. Television animal celebrity Jack Hanna quoted in the article:

"It's like Noah's Ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," lamented Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo.

Hanna defended the sheriff's decision to kill the animals but said the deaths of the Bengal tigers were especially tragic. There are only about 1,400 of the endangered cats left in the world, he said.

"When I heard 18 I was still in disbelief," he said. "The most magnificent creature in the entire world, the tiger is."

Governor John Kasich has been weak on anti-exotic animal laws in his state, but this horrifying event might cause him to change things. ""Clearly, we need tougher laws. We haven't had them in this state. Nobody's dealt with this, and we will. And we'll deal with it in a comprehensive way." Sounds politic to me but I don't care what the motivation, if it leads to the end of people keeping exotic animals as "pets" or for any other reason.

The above event was caused (as far as can be known at this time) by one individual who was, seemingly, mentally ill. Or something -- something triggered that behavior. Researcher Andrew Colvin (Mothman's Photographer, Mothman Speaks, etc.) for example, has written about the eerie history and octopus like connections to various conspiracies (many of them paranormally tinged) of Ohio. It's a state where many darkly weird things have happened indeed. It'll be interesting to see where following this thread goes...

The following event is an inverse of the above. The story again concerns an individual who kept "wild" animals, but in this case, the animals weren't "exotic" but tame deer. It could be argued whether deer are "pets" -- they aren't -- but there are deer farms, (sadly, some are raised for meat) and some deer do become domesticated and "pets" in a sense. They can't be returned to the wild; and so, they remain on private property, as in this story ....

In this sick case, the authorities descended and slaughted all the deer on private property:

On a private farm in Randolph County nine tame deer were shot and killed by North Carolina wildlife agents. No warning was given. One of the deer living on Wayne Kinley’s property was recovering from injury, and the other was an abandoned  fawn. The other seven were exotic European deer.

It has been reported the reason indicated for killing the deer was the possibility they could have chronic wasting disease. However, this disease reportedly has never been found in North Carolina’s deer population.

Kinley was completely surprised by the sudden shooting, “I sat and actually watched them shoot the deer. I saw them shoot one deer and I just put my head down on the back of a truck and about went to my knees. I just about went limp.” (Source: Blueridgenow.com)

I can only imagine the horror and sadness this man experienced as he witnessed such a horrific scene. And I can't help but have my mind wander to the energies of the place in terms of spirit residue and hauntings, as it does with the Ohio story.

There's a lot very much wrong with this case: the article notes that the search warrant didn't contain anything about killing deer. It took nine officers -- the number of deer slaughtered -- to arrive on the scene and kill the deer.

 The number nine is rich with occult energy, framed in different ways depending on the system. According to this site, nine, among other representations, symbolizes ""the earth under evil influences" in Christian tradition. A world of meanings on a continuum from negativity (the above) to the highest spiritual energy.

What was the real motivation behind the deer slaughter? A show of force, of the power of authority? One more signal in the long list of authorities from every agency you can name over-reaching what they are hired to do.  Something in the water, so to speak, that makes authorities power mad, power tripping, beyond even their own recognition.  I think there's a bit of truth in all of the above. The insanity we've witnessed since 9/11 among authorities and controllers but specifically, in the last two years or so, seems ... intentional. Conspiracy minded to the extreme, paranoid, maybe.  But that doesn't make it less true.

Related links:

• Andrew Colvin Interview with Mike Clleland
• Radio Misterioso: Greg Bishop interviews Andrew Colvin
• Ohio Hauntings
• The Ohio Grassman