[FEL-L] another black eye

[MySayber at aol.com]

Palm Beach Post Editorial
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Last week came  another reminder that the state shouldn't allow people to 
keep wild, potentially  dangerous animals unless they actually know how to take 
care of wild,  potentially dangerous animals.

The Miami-Dade County State Attorney's  Office filed two misdemeanor charges 
in the mauling in November of a 4-year-old  girl at a Coral Gables birthday 
party. Francisco Unanue, president of Goya  Foods, got the bright idea to throw 
his daughter a party that featured a  62-pound cougar. The big cat came from a 
company owned, according to reports in  The Miami Herald, by an ex-Hooters 
waitress who once posed for a Playboy  video.

In 1999, the paper reported, Corinne Oltz was convicted of a  similar 
violation after an incident involving one of her animals. In 2001, a  leopard 
attacked a child at a birthday party, and Ms. Oltz got probation. An  investigator 
for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told the  Herald that 
the leopard's bite "was a fraction of an inch from going to the  brain stem. 
That would have killed the kid instantly." In November, according to  
investigators, the 4-year-old birthday guest walked up from behind and surprised  the 
cougar, which then grabbed the left side of the girl's face. If Mr. Unanue  
wanted to make a break from the usual clown and balloons, he did.

This  will seem familiar to residents of this area, who watched in 2004 as 
wildlife  officers pursued a tiger that had escaped from a compound in western 
Palm Beach  County. Third-rate Tarzan actor Steve Sipek, apparently unable to 
get out of  character, had amassed several cats. When a wildlife officer sadly 
but correctly  had to shoot Bobo the tiger, the officer drew criticism that 
should have been  directed at Mr. Sipek.

The state, which in 1980 had banned the keeping of  such pets, had let Mr. 
Sipek slide on adding to the animals he had bought before  the ban. But a year 
after Bobo got out, Mr. Sipek had been able to buy two new  tiger cubs. A year 
after that, he got around the state law even more by  registering as an 
exhibitor.

Florida, and this area in particular, are  lucky enough to have lots of 
well-qualified zoos, research centers and  sanctuaries for animals that aren't 
suitable pets or have been abandoned. Local  and state politicians also are doing 
more to restrict the trade in exotic  creatures. With pythons threatening to 
upset the balance in the Everglades and  iguanas overrunning some 
neighborhoods, Florida has to start saving itself from  problems caused by the wrong 
animals being in the wrong places. One way is to  prosecute those who cause the 
problems.

_http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/  
epaper/2007/07/31/m10a_cougar_edit_0731.html_ 
(http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/07/31/m10a_cougar_edit_0731.html) 



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