Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Opinions

WIth animal experts like this, who needs flamingo poachers? ...wait, do people poach flamingos?

In an alarming incident this past week at Ohio State University Airport, 60-year old animal expert Jack Hanna and a flamingo were caught together in a security turnstile.

The 11-month old flamingo, part of Hanna's wildlife repertoire, was in a two by three foot crate when Hanna tried to push it into the turnstile.

Though he was able to eventually free himself, he left behind his feathered companion in the turnstile, and the other passengers on the tarmac.

Hanna then walked to a nearby fire station where he enlisted the help of three firefighters to lift the crate out of the turnstile, freeing his pink friend,
Along with the flamingo, Hanna was returning from a fundraiser with a mongoose and a leopard.

He described the harrowing experience in vivid detail: "I was stuck like a worm. My eyes were as big as grapefruits. I can't describe the feeling in my stomach. I can't move up or down. The bars are on your face". Isn't that rather like what an animal in a zoo cage might feel like?
He admitted that he "never thought about the crate being square and the turnstile being round".

Hanna, who handles deadly animals, and is a steward of endangered species, must not have had to pass a shape block test during what was surely a rigorous selection process for his post as director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo.

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