Your tax dollars at work: Ollie the bobcat escapes from National Zoo

-- BombThrowers Ollie, a seven-year-old female bobcat, has escaped from the taxpayer-supported National Zoo in Washington, D.C. According to the Washington Post:

"The large cat, which can be a threat to domestic dogs and cats, is not a danger to the public, but should not be approached, the zoo said. Ollie, a female, was last seen in her enclosure by a keeper at 7:30 a.m. When summoned for breakfast at 10:40 a.m., Ollie did not show up."

When it comes to taking care of its animals, the National Zoo, which is part of the Smithsonian and has its own police force, doesn't have a good track record. In 2013 Rusty the male red panda liberated himself from his residence. He was found in the nearby Adams Morgan neighborhood. Around the same time a female red river hog named Holly became malnourished and died. A pregnant kudu broke its neck. A Dama gazelle also broke its neck after smashing into a wall. It panicked when a Grévy’s zebra turned on its keeper nearby. The keeper had to be hospitalized. A vulture escaped when its wings had not been clipped. A Przewalski horse died after breaking its neck at the zoo's Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. In 2003 an unknown animal attacked and killed a bald eagle. Rats killed and ate half the zoo's prairie dogs. Two zebras died from starvation. Two red pandas chowed down on rat poison. A colobus monkey contracted leptospirosis which is transmitted by rats. This is not an exhaustive list.