An aggressive zebra was euthanized after it attacked its owner in an Ohio pasture. According to 10 WBNS, the owner called dispatchers requesting immediate assistance in the wake the attack, which occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 12. The zebra was shot after charging a responding officer, and the owner was transported to the Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The incident took place in Pickaway County, Ohio. The aggressive zebra was reportedly protecting “5 or 6 females” when it rammed into the driver’s side door of a police cruiser. A deputy then used an air horn and the built-in sirens on his emergency vehicle to haze the animal away. It left the area long enough for the officer to apply a tourniquet to the injured man’s arm but quickly returned, the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office told local media outlets.
The New York Post reports that the owner was 72-year-old Ronald Clifton of Circleville, Ohio. During a 911 call, Clifton told dispatchers to “send a chopper” because he believed that the zebra had torn his arm off. When the responding officer reached Clifton, he found that his arm was not severed but was bleeding badly below the elbow.
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The shocking incident was captured in body cam footage that shows the zebra encroaching on an officer who’d been given permission by the injured man’s family to shoot the animal if necessary. When verbal warnings failed to deter the zebra, the officer fired one slug from his 12-gauge shotgun, hitting it in the forehead.
While the Ohio Department of Agriculture prohibits ownership of certain exotics that are classified as “dangerous wild animals” by the state, zebras don’t make that list. Banned wildlife in Buckeye State includes hyenas, gray wolves, Komodo dragons, crocodiles, and caymans.
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