COLUMBUS, Ohio – Celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna criticized Ohio lawmakers Thursday for not yet passing a bill to regulate exotic animals, months after authorities shot dozens of lions, tigers, bears and other wild creatures let loose by their suicidal owner.

A Republican state senator from Zanesville, the eastern Ohio city where the animals were shot, had planned to introduce a bill this week but then said it was not ready. There is no new timetable for the measure.

“What’s it going to take, everyone, to pass a bill? Someone else getting killed?” Hanna said during his remarks to members of the Ohio Newspaper Association at their convention in Columbus.

Hanna, a former Columbus Zoo director who has given animal demonstrations on national television for decades, said he can’t believe legislation hasn’t progressed.

“In fact, I’m actually in a state of shock right now because, folks, you’re not dealing with some little issue of animals here. You’re dealing with bombs,” Hanna said.

Hanna said he has no power over the Ohio Legislature and isn’t running for office. But he said he has seen a tiger finish off a 2,000-pound water buffalo in less than 10 seconds and lions take down even larger animals in less than 30 seconds.

“You probably don’t want to witness it,” he said.

Ohio has some of the nation’s weakest restrictions on exotic pets. Efforts to strengthen the state’s law took on new urgency in October when authorities were forced to hunt down and kill 48 wild animals after their owner freed them and then committed suicide.

In August 2010, a bear attacked and killed a caretaker during a feeding at the home of a man who also kept wolves and tigers near Cleveland.

State Sen. Troy Balderson of Zanesville sent a letter to state lawmakers, asking them to sign on to his bill.

He included some details about future regulations. For instance, the measure would immediately ban people from acquiring additional exotic animals. Zoo, circuses, sanctuaries and research facilities would be exempt.

Owners of lions, tigers and other large animals would be banned in 2014 from keeping the creatures unless they applied to be a “private shelter” and met new caging requirements and care standards.

But on Tuesday, Balderson said the bill needed more work.

Hanna said that on his travels around the world, he has frequently been asked whether the laws have been changed in Ohio as a result of the Zanesville hunt.

“This is an international issue,” he said. “The world is waiting for what the law will be.”