A zebra attacked a man in Ohio before it was killed by a deputy

By Sara Smart, CNN

A man was hospitalized after a zebra attacked him and bit his arm in Ohio Sunday before a deputy shot and killed the animal, according to law enforcement.

Deputies were dispatched to a home in Circleville, Ohio, after getting a call from a man who said “his arm had been bitten off by a Zebra,” according to a Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by CNN.

The first deputy on scene, about 28 miles south of Columbus, arrived to see a “hostile” zebra charging his patrol vehicle and used his air horn and sirens to scare it away long enough to get out and apply a tourniquet to the wounded man’s arm and get him in an ambulance, the report says.

As medical personnel were tending to the victim, the zebra continued to linger around the area and was acting aggressive, according to the report.

Another man on scene told deputies that “this Zebra is aggressive and to put the Zebra down if needed,” the sheriff’s office report said.

Body camera footage shows a man chasing the zebra away with a large stick. After keeping its distance for about a minute, the animal eventually begins walking towards the deputies. A deputy then fired one shot at the zebra, killing it.

The deputy who opened fire said he saw the zebra walking aggressively toward him and yelled at it to scare it away but the “Zebra didn’t slow down and kept coming at me,” according to the document.

The report from the sheriff’s office says the male Zebra may have been aggressive because it was protecting a group of female zebras in the field.

Zebras are not listed as wild and dangerous animals by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which means they can be owned as pets.

The man who was injured remains in the hospital in fair condition, according to a spokesperson with Ohio Health.

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