[freakydeeky]

Here's a Cleveland newspaper article.
Too bad no gore pics!

Ohio -- Wild animal showman Sam Mazzola fled two counties, paid fines, and fought several criminal charges to hold onto his assortment of bears, tigers and other beasties.

In the past, he's blamed some of his troubles on misguided animal rights activists.

But Friday -- hours after one of his employees died after being mauled by one of his bears -- the wild-animal showman looked shaken.

Brent Kandra, 24, had worked and played with Mazzola's animals for about six years. Kandra was feeding Cherokee, one of nine black bears on Mazolla's Lorain County property, about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when the bear grabbed Kandra.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010...ies_bears.html

[freakydeeky]

MAULED MAN DIES

COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Wild animal showman Sam Mazzola fled two counties, paid fines, and fought several criminal charges to hold onto his assortment of bears, tigers and other beasties.

In the past, he's blamed some of his troubles on misguided animal rights activists.

But Friday -- hours after one of his employees died after being mauled by one of his bears -- the wild-animal showman looked shaken.

Brent Kandra, 24, had worked and played with Mazzola's animals for about six years. Kandra was feeding Cherokee, one of nine black bears on Mazolla's Lorain County property, about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when the bear grabbed Kandra.

Mazzola, who witnessed the attack, said he never saw anything like it. Lorain County Sheriff's deputies are investigating.

Although Kandra's death is the first fatality associated with Mazzola's animals, Mazzola and his animals have a storied history of run-ins with authorities that dates back to at least 1986 when Mazzola kept Caesar, a 700-pound bear, at the Creekside condominiums in Brunswick Hills.

For the next 20 years, Mazzola traveled the bar-and-carnival circuit, offering people -- many of them drunk -- the chance to wrestle Caesar or one of his other bears.

Some of Mazzola's critics hoped the bear show was over in 2008 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cracked down on Mazzola, stripped him of a federal license to exhibit exotic animals and fined him nearly $14,000 for refusing to allow an inspection of an exhibit and threatening federal officials among other things.

But that did nothing to separate Mazzola from the animals he says he loves.

In September, Mazzola pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two federal criminal charges of exhibiting and selling exotic animals without a license. He was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to do 250 hours of community service.

It's unclear how Kandra's death may impact Mazzola's probation or the future of Cherokee, the bear who mauled him.

Sheriff's deputies called an ambulance for Mazzola the night of the attack. Mazzola was treated for medical problems that appeared to have nothing to do with the bear. Mazzola told a local television staton he planned to destroy Cherokee.

Hours after Kandra died, the chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States issued a statement saying that Kandra's death shows the need for immediate action by Ohio's leaders to prohibit private ownership of dangerous wild animals.

It included a list of 19 exotic animal incidents it's documented in Ohio since 2003, including: A Hamilton County man killed by his pet python in 2006; the 2006 mauling of an Ashtabula woman by a neighbor's pet bear; an escaped pet lion that was chasing cars in Pike County.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is working on possible rules, but a spokesman said Friday that they are nowhere close to seeking legislative approval.

Mazzola, meanwhile, was up to date on state permits, including those that show he purchased the animals legally and didn't capture them in the wild. The state has no safety, cage or care requirements.

Over the years, officials in several communities have tried to separate Mazzola from his animals, but none succeeded. Mazzola finally settled in Columbia Township in the 1990s.

Columbia Trustee Dale Rundle said Friday that he lead an inquiry into what the township could do to limit Mazzola's private zoo after neighbors complained about the big cats' loud roaring. One of the bears also escaped and sat on a neighbor, he said.

"We found out we couldn't do a thing," Rundle said.

Many people in Lorain County probably don't even realize Mazzola has kept bears, tigers and other large animals on his 17 acres, Rundle said.

Yet even without Kandra's death, his menagerie may have soon become an issue.

Rundle said a developer is running a sewer line down the road where Mazzola lives. And many more people might soon have run-ins with Mazzola's zoo.

[freakydeeky]

^ that's the owner pictured in photo. I'm watching him in a live interview on ABC right now- he seems eloquent and passionate.

(I hope that bear does not get destroyed!)

[Pigeon]

PET BEAR?!!

[LittleNightmare]

what part of the "Wild" in "Wild Animal" don't people get ?
700 pounds of enraged bear: time to play!

[freakydeeky]

I guess that bear was the guy's favorite bear to play with but the bear didn't want him to leave...

[Geemonster]

Winner of todays Darwin award!

[SuperSuperior]

thats wut u get for having a bear as a pet
try having a crocodile or a shark in ur afterlife asshole

[Steve]

The owner looks like he belonged in a fucking zoo himself, he is a proper pretty fucker isn't he. :laug

[Viking64]

As opposed to...."improper ugly?"