The Elephant in the Living Room

I'm sure most of you have heard about the tragedy in Zanesville, OH last week, but for those of you who don't, here's the quick and dirty version.

Terry Thompson, the owner of an exotic animal preserve in Zanesville, opened the cage doors of his dozens of lions, tigers, bears and more and then committed suicide. Police were obviously called, as these animals are dangerous to people.  They ended up shooting and killing nearly 50 of the animals, including 18 tigers, 17 lions, 8 bears, a baboon.  Six animals were captured and sent to the Columbus Zoo (including two monkeys, three leopards, and a bear).  Read more about the story in the journal-news, here. 

See more pictures here (beware, link contains very sad and disturbing images)

It just so happens that I had been working with the Miami Middletown Office of Student Activities for the past few months on bringing in the filmmaker and star of a documentary called "The Elephant in the Living Room," a film all about the controversial issue of raising dangerous animals as household pets.  Timely, huh? 

Set against the backdrop of a heated national debate, director Michael Webber chronicles the extraordinary journey of two men at the heart of the issue – Tim Harrison, a police officer whose friend was killed by an exotic pet; and Terry Brumfield, a big-hearted man struggling to raise two African Lions.  The film has been praised by critics as one of the best of the year. 

We'll be showing the film next Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 5 pm in the Harry T. Wilks Conference Center on the Miami Hamilton Campus.  Both Webber and Harrison will be available for questions and answers after the film. See the web events calendar for more details.

See a preview:

See http://www.theelephantinthelivingroom.comfor additional information about the film. Hope to see you there.