Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Jack Hanna has urged a state panel to draw up strict rules for owning exotic animals in Ohio, where a man set loose more than 50 creatures last week and then killed himself - but the TV personality has stopped short of advocating a complete ban on such animals. Hanna, the former Columbus Zoo director, said he told a working committee during its closed meeting Monday that Ohio must make sure that what just happened neverhappens again. Police killed dozens of the released animals while schools closed and motorists were warned to stay in their vehicles. Hanna told The Columbus Dispatch that his message was: “No more lions and tigers and bears as pets.” On Friday, Gov. John Kasich ordered a temporary crackdown on private ownership of exotic wild animals. The study committee has until Nov. 30 to draft permanent legislation, with one more meeting scheduled next week. Kasich said Tuesday that Hanna has told him there may need to be exceptions to a complete ban. “What Jack Hanna’s told me is you may have some breeders, you may have some circumstances where it’s legitimate for somebody to have it, but they clearly have to be qualified, they have to be certified,” Kasich told reporters after a public appearance. The Republican governor said he has difficulty comprehending exotic-animal ownership. “I have a really hard time understanding why somebody ought to have a grizzly bear on their private compound, or lions or Bengal tigers. I just don’t get it, but it’s a complicated issue,” he said.

A Phoenix hospital is injecting a little Poison into families waiting for sick loved ones, thanks to a donation from 1980s hair-band singer Bret Michaels. The Poison frontman plans to announce Thursday that he is donating TVs and sound systems for a waiting room at St. Joseph’s Barrow Neurological Institute, where he was treated in April 2010 for a brain hemorrhage. The equipment will allow families to relax and listen to music. In return, the waiting room will be named after Michaels. He also was treated at the hospital earlier this year for a procedure to fix a hole in his heart. Doctors discovered the hole when they treated him for the brain hemorrhage. Michaels said in a statement that the room will be “warm and hip.”