Three escaped zebras shot dead in California

Along with hairpin curves and heart-stopping views of the Pacific, motorists on Highway 1 near San Simeon may glimpse a most exotic sight: a herd of zebras grazing in pastures along the road. They are what is left of what was once the world's largest private zoo — a menagerie of camels, kangaroos, emus and giraffes that roamed the estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

Last week three zebras — a buck, a mare and a yearling — escaped from Hearst Ranch and wandered over to nearby Cambria. On Jan. 5, when two of the three turned up on David Fiscalini's cattle ranch, he raised his shotgun and killed them. A neighbouring rancher shot the third zebra. Fiscalini said that the two zebras that got onto his property had spooked his horses.



The incident has pitted local preservationists against those who say ranchers have the right to defend their livestock. Fanning the controversy were reports of Fiscalini's actions the day after the shooting, when he called a local taxidermist out to the ranch and said he needed one of the zebras skinned and its hide tanned. "He wants to make a rug," said Rosemary Anderson, the taxidermist's wife. "You can't believe the controversy."

When Anderson's husband, Don, got to the ranch, Fiscalini told him about the third zebra, and said the neighbour that shot that one wanted a rug too, Rosemary Anderson said. She called Fiscalini's actions "a wanton waste" but said, "This rancher felt that he was taking care of his property and getting rid of a predator." Eleanor Seavey, who owns Her Castle, a Cambria bed and breakfast, said she and her friends were disturbed by news of the killings: "They're such beautiful animals — why would anyone kill them?" The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department says the shooting does not appear to be a crime.

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