People in Zanesville, Ohio are locked up today, in fear of exotic animals on the loose after an exotic animal preserve owner killed himself and then let the animals free. Lions, bears, mountain lions and more.

Kim Stanley Robinson, a science fiction writer, could tell you where this all might lead. In his book Forty Signs of Rain global warming has flooded Washington D.C. and the decision is made to let the National Zoo animals go free before they are drowned by the waters. So they let them out.

Tigers, polar bears, snakes, monkeys and more who all eventually escape and make homes for themselves in parks. When the rains stop, the animals remain part of the community, hidden most of the time, but always around in the destroyed parks as Robinson writes about in the second book in this trilogy Fifty Degress Below.

The animals fared much better than the humans in Robinson's books, but in Zanesville, I think the animals are getting the worst of it.

(S-R photo archives)

 

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