COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s governor has signed into law the state’s widely watched new regulations on exotic animals.

Gov. John Kasich signed the legislation at a Statehouse ceremony June 5. Celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna appeared at the signing, along with state lawmakers and other Ohio officials. Regulatory efforts took on new urgency in October, when a suicidal owner released dozens of exotic animals from his farm near Zanesville.

The measure, which takes effect in three months, will ban people from buying new dangerous exotic animals. Current owners can keep their creatures by registering them with the state within 60 days of the bill’s effective date. Owners will also have to obtain a new state-issued permit by 2014 and adhere to strict new caretaking standards.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The federal government will implement a new rule mandating stiffer penalties for horse soring and other related violations.

According to The Tennessean, the USDA’s new rule will require organizations that inspect horses to assess minimum penalties to violators of the Horse Protection Act, including violations from soring Tennessee Walking Horses.

Currently, outside organizations licensed by the USDA and certified by the department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service can inspect horses for soring and other violations. The new rule would require these organizations to assess the same level of federally mandated penalties in any horse show they are inspecting.

Soring is pouring caustic chemicals on the hooves and lower legs of horses to induce the high leg kick that wins prizes in competitions. Last month, the Humane Society of the United States released a video showing Collierville trainer Jackie McConnell abusing and soring horses.

McConnell, 60, later pled guilty to federal charges of violating the Horse Protection Act. He will be sentenced later. Jeff Dockery, 56, entered his plea June 5 in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga to a reduced charge of conspiracy to show sored horses.

Dockery cooperated with federal prosecutors, who obtained guilty pleas to charges of conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act from his three co-defendants last month. They are McConnell, 47-year-old John Mays and 29-year-old Joseph Abernathy.

SOMERSET, Ky. (AP) — A man has been killed in a farm tractor accident in southern Kentucky.

WLEX-TV in Lexington reported the incident occurred about 7:15 p.m. June 6, about 15 miles east of Somerset in Pulaski County. Sheriff’s deputies said the tractor ran down a steep incline and hit a tree, killing the 53-year-old operator. His name wasn’t immediately released.

EAST PERU, Iowa (AP) — Well-known farm news broadcaster Mark Pearson has died at his home in Madison County.

Chief Deputy Jason Barnes of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department told The Des Moines Register Pearson died June 3 at his farm home near East Peru, of an apparent heart attack. The 54-year-old Pearson was host of the “Market to Market” program on Iowa Public Television and co-hosted a program about agricultural news on WHO-AM radio.

Pearson had worked as assistant secretary of the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) — An unusual discovery of mammoth bones on a rural Oskaloosa farm has experts studying prehistoric life excited about scientific discoveries that may lie with the massive beast.

The find is rare because it appears to include much of the animal’s skeleton undisturbed. That allows scientists to gather pollen and other plant evidence at the dig site that could reveal details about Iowa’s environment more than 12,000 years ago.

Scientists from the University of Iowa were planning to scan the area with ground penetrating radar last Friday to see if they could determine how much of the mammoth remains underground. Excavation will continue throughout the summer. Bones were first found two years ago by the landowner. He wants his name and location of the farm to remain confidential to protect the site.