Animal Right's Activist Says Exotic Animal Sales Need Regulation

The Humane Society report documents 29 cases of people injured or killed by exotic animals in Ohio since 2003.

Yet keeping exotic animals in Ohio — and in nine other states — is legal.

Terry Thompson, of a  Zanesville Ohio, kept lots of exotic animals on his property. But this week he opened their cages and then committed suicide. Now 48 animals, many endangered, are dead.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society, is a longtime advocate for stronger laws regulating the sale and care of exotic animals.

"Obviously people who have a tiger or a lion or a chimpanzee or a green anaconda in their home, they're drawn to the animals. The problem is it's abusive and impossible to maintain these animals in that sort of captive setting. It almost always turns badly for the animal," he told Here & Now's Robin Young.