Escaped Zebras Loose in Virginia
Two zebras have escaped their enclosures in Leesburg, Va. and were spotted roaming through nearby neighborhoods Monday.
Near Route 15, the escaped petting zoo animals were protected from traffic by police cars, which surrounded them. The zebras were tranquilized and captured after having escaped through a gate that was accidentally left open Monday afternoon.
Leesburg Animal Park owner Shirley Johnson told News4 that the animals were safely returned to the park.
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The animal retrieval this week was not the first the Leesburg Animal Park has seen. Last spring an African cat escaped, and the Loudoun Times reported that the animal was hit by a car but survived.
Leesburg lies just 33 miles northwest from Washington, D.C. and at the base of the easternmost chain of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
During another incident in October, police killed nearly 50 animals after escaping their private enclosures in Ohio. The animal farm owner had taken his own life after freeing his pets, resulting in monkeys, lions, bears, and endangered tigers threatening the surrounding residential area.
Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said during a press conference following the incident that the police “weren’t going to take any chances” and shot dead 48 animals total. Animals included one baboon, 18 tigers, and a dozen monkeys.
“We are not talking about your everyday house cat or dog. These are 300-pound Bengal tigers we had to put down,” the Sheriff continued.
Defending the decision to kill most of the animals, Lutz emphasized that the animals were “mature, very big, and aggressive” and that they posed a serious threat to the public.
Since the incident in Ohio, the state has proposed a law to ban the ownership of exotic animals.
