Killer Bear Owner Chokes to Death on Sex Toy
If you thought Sam Mazzola, the "exotic-animal owner" whose bear killed one of its trainers last year, had already used up his lifetime allotment of tabloid headlines, think again! Mazzola was found dead on Sunday, "wearing a leather mask with the eyes and mouth zipped shut and a two-piece metal sphere covering his head." Apparently, he choked on a sex toy.
Mazzola was found facedown, mask and metal sphere on, sex toy in mouth, "bound to the bed with handcuffs, chains and padlocks" in Columbia Station, Ohio, where he kept his animals (including bears, wolves, tigers and possibly one lion), by a teenaged coworker. According to authorities, he'd been bound "by request," and whoever trussed him up left, though that seems to have been part of the deal, as the cops aren't treating the death as suspicious.
Mazzola's death comes almost 11 months after the death of Brent Kandra, a 24-year-old animal trainer who was mauled to death by one of Mazzola's bears.
