Ohio builds exotic animal shelter

Ohio lawmakers approved spending $3.5 million to build a sanctuary to temporarily house exotic animals seized by animal control agents. The expenditure comes after state legislators passed a law to handle the overflow of exotic animals in private care. The issue garnered national attention last year when a man without license to house dozens of exotic -- and dangerous -- animals turned them free before committing suicide. The end result: lions, tigers and bears left to roam free in Zanesville, Ohio. Animal control experts told state officials Monday the expensive new facility, required by a law passed in the wake of the Zanesville incident, may not be large enough to tackle the problem, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported. "It's anecdotal, but we had a man call who said he had 65 poisonous snakes in his house," Ohio Agriculture Director David Daniels said. The state's animal detention center, to be built in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, is meant only as a short-term home for seized creatures before they are released back into the wild or found a home at a zoo or other animal sanctuary, the newspaper reported.