Did you know there’s a group of five zebras roaming around Maryland right now? We’re serious! As of the time of this writing, there’s a group of five zebras that have been roaming around Maryland for a little over a week. I know, there are so many questions you’re probably thinking right now. “How did the zebras get to Maryland?” “Why haven’t they caught the zebras?” “What do you call a group of zebras anyway?” “Who let the zebras out?”
All those questions are perfectly valid, and we have a partial answer already to the last one: it was NOT Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Before we get to the details of why the Congresswoman is involved in this, maybe we should explain why there are zebras in Maryland to begin with. There’s a farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland that has on occasion, played home to exotic animals. It doesn’t seem to be a case where the animals were smuggled in illegally as the Huffington Post reports that the farm did have a permit to keep the animals.
No details have emerged yet as to how the animals managed to escape, but they’ve been on the roam since around the start of September in an area approximately 20 miles outside of Washington D.C. Attempts to capture the animals are being made, but the goal is not to spook the exotic animals in a way that would cause harm to them. ABC News reports that feeding stations have been setup in hopes that it will attract the animals and allow them to be calmly wrangled up.
Because of the area where the animals have been located, longtime DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton became involved in the matter, partially due to her outspoken support of, and introduction of a bill that would prevent permanent fencing from being installed around the Capitol Building Complex in DC. While some argue that this fencing will provide extra, needed security, Congresswoman Norton believes it sends a very negative and anti-American message between the government and its people.
And here’s where it’s a bit hard to tell whether the Congresswoman was joking or not. She said that someone had accused her of being the one to let the zebras loose, because of her stance against fencing. Her response was to jokingly state that she had an alibi for this that would account for her whereabouts when the zebras were unleashed. Given that her reply was very much tongue in cheek, it’s a little hard to tell whether or not she was actually accused of this by someone, or if she’s playing up the situation as a joke regarding her bill against fencing.
Sadly, with how far gone some people are with conspiracy theories and wild accusations, it would not be out of the realm of possibility to think that someone would actually accuse the congresswoman of unleashing the zebras. But let’s be honest here, we’ll probably never know what happened. I mean, after all, it’s literally been 21 years since the Baha Men asked, “Who let the Dogs Out?” and we still don’t have an answer to that!
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