He just lost it.

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: He just lost it.

Why would Terry Thompson release 17 lions, 18 Bengal tigers, plus wolves, baboons, monkeys, bears — from his private zoo near Zanesville, Ohio, then kill himself?

Neighbors speculated that his pending divorce may have pushed him over the edge:

“He just must of lost it,” said one neighbor.

What did not surprise people familiar with the exotic animal market is that this happened in Ohio. Tim Harrison, the founder of Outreach for Animals, says Ohio’s hand-off policy has made it ground zero for this kind of thing:

“There’s auctions all across the country,” says Harrison. “Ohio’s the number one offender in the United States right now for having these massive auctions. You can buy a hyena. You could buy an African Lion. You could buy a cougar. In fact there’s so many cougars, lions and tigers out there, they’re giving them away for free.”

At least these were in a private zoo — some owners try to keep them indoors:

“In Cincinnati area, we had a 600 pound White Tiger that was in a man’s basement. This guy was training his White Tiger to be an attack tiger, and it did, it attacked him,” says Harrison.

John Kasich, governor of Ohio, has been criticized for letting the Ohio’s exotic animal law expire in April. Don’t worry, he says, there’ll be a new one in place soon. But this is just another reminder why we end up with so many laws inhibiting our pursuit of happiness.

WE all want to be free to pursue happiness — but there are some people out there who have some pretty wacky definitions of happiness:

“We live next to Terry Thompson and there’s a bear and a lion out,” said one neighbor calling police.

When your happiness looks like it might leap across the yard and take a bite out of my happiness — THAT’s when the laws start flying.

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