APD Chief Tom Pyle said the department does not have a certain protocol for dealing with exotic animals within Athens County and only has dealt with a crocodile and python.
Athens native Keegan Chubb said he once saw a black bear roaming around the community, but what he saw after receiving a phone call from his friend Isaiah Mullins left him dumbfounded.
Outside the Athens Texas Roadhouse last month, Chubb saw a zebra with a pink harness peeking its head against the glass of a parked minivan.
Chubb, a Hocking College student studying integrated media, said he didn’t see anyone attending to the zebra.
“I drove there and there was a zebra in a van and I was like, 'OK, no one is going to believe this if I don't take a picture,' so I took a picture and uploaded it to Twitter,” Chubb said. "It went crazy."
A picture snapped and few hundred retweets on his Twitter account later, Chubb caused a social media outburst around Athens in late March.
There is a Zebra in a mini van at Texas Roadhouse in Athens :joy::joy::joy: pic.twitter.com/wiIr3irvQz — K-V▲$i (@PaPpAChUbB) March 24, 2016
“Is this real life???” one Twitter account tweeted at Chubb.
Yes, that actually happened. And yes, wild animals are still an issue in Ohio.
Zebras aren't classified as exotic animals because they don’t commonly attack or are considered a threat to society, Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Erica Hawkins said.
After the 2011 Zanesville exotic animal escape, which saw 56 exotic animals, including bears, tigers, leopards and monkeys, escape from a Zanesville farm, Hawkins said the exotic animals facility in Reynoldsburg has seen about 40 cases yearly.
“A zebra is going to be treated as a non-domesticated animal, and their regulations are going to be mostly at the federal level," Hawkins said.
Hawkins added that wild animals being found in Midwestern states, such as Ohio, stems from a breeding and black market problem within the U.S.
According to national animal advocacy nonprofit Born Free USA, more than 2,000 attacks, "incidents" and escapes involving exotic pets have happened since 1990.
Athens Police Department Chief Tom Pyle said the department does not have a certain protocol for dealing with exotic animals within Athens County and only has dealt with a crocodile and python.
"We got a call and it was a 3-foot long alligator, or crocodile, in somebody's bathtub," Pyle said. "Probably 10 to 15 years ago."
Athens County Sheriff's Office Assistant Joni Ross said Sheriff Rodney Smith did not receive a call about the zebra, adding that the Texas Roadhouse on 996 E. State St. is APD's jurisdiction.
Another social media post surfaced after Chubb's, which stated that a family from Columbus was traveling with a zebra named Zelda to Oklahoma and was stopped by a police officer. The post said the family got out of a ticket because of its striped passenger, in addition to a crate of miniature kangaroos in tow.
Members of the family could not be reached for comment as of press time.
— Julia Fair contributed to this report.
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