Zebra bites Ohio man’s arm off before being put down

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – A man was taken to the hospital Sunday afternoon after a zebra attacked him in Pickaway County, Ohio.

According to an incident report from the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were sent around 5:30 p.m. to a fenced-in field after reports that a man had his arm dismembered by a zebra he owned.

Pickaway County deputies and a victim’s family member fend off a zebra after it bit a man’s arm off. (Courtesy Photo/Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office)

As deputies arrived, they saw the victim lying on the ground with his right arm covered with his sleeve. According to the incident report, dispatch logs said the victim had his arm bitten off by the zebra.

An edited version of deputies’ body camera footage is below.

While deputies were treating the man, the zebra continued acting irate and charged one deputy’s cruiser, which was positioned to block the man from the animal. The man was accompanied by family members as he was being put in an ambulance since the zebra would not stop being hostile.

Deputies began blowing air horns and yelling at the zebra to scare it away, but it continued to charge toward authorities and the victim’s family members. They told the deputies not to turn their backs on the zebra, since that was when it would attack, and gave them permission to put down the zebra if necessary. A deputy then fatally shot the zebra in the head due to its continued aggressive behavior.

One account from a PCSO deputy in the incident report was that the “zebra was aggressive due to being protective of about five or six female zebras that were in the field.”

After the zebra was killed, the man was taken to Grant Medical Center for his injuries.