dozens of tigers & lions turned lose in USA when farm owner got pissed by Govt

[uncleyap]

This I think is Obama's home state Ohio.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Ohio+police+forced+shoot+exotic+animals/5577762/story.html

Ohio police forced to shoot exotic animals

Suicidal zoo owner set creatures, including endangered tigers, loose
By Jim Leckrone, Reuters October 20, 2011 12:00 AM

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A sign warns drivers of exotic animals running loose in the area around Zanesville, Ohio, on Wednesday. Dozens of large creatures including Bengal tigers, lions and bears were shot after their owner opened their cages and then committed suicide.

A sign warns drivers of exotic animals running loose in the area around Zanesville, Ohio, on Wednesday. Dozens of large creatures including Bengal tigers, lions and bears were shot after their owner opened their cages and then committed suicide.
Photograph by: Matt Sullivan, Reuters, Reuters

Dozens of exotic animals including tigers, lions and bears were let loose on Ohio farmland by their owner before he committed suicide, sparking a shoot-tokill hunt in which 48 of the wild beasts, including 18 endangered Bengal tigers, were killed.

As the huge animals roamed inside and outside the 73-acre farm near Zanesville in eastern Ohio, schools were shut and panicked residents were told to stay inside Wednesday.

Authorities killed 48 of the 56 animals, some at close range, including the tigers, six black bears, two grizzlies and 17 lions, said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.

A monkey, possibly carrying the Herpes B virus, and a grey wolf remained at large, he told a news conference.

One of the escaped big cats reached an interstate highway and was hit by a car. Authorities posted electronic warning signs, "Caution Exotic Animals" for motorists.

"We are not talking about your normal everyday house cat or dog. These are 300-pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down," Lutz said. "I gave the order ... that if animals looked like they were on their way out, they were put down."

The dead animals have been buried on the farm. Survivors were taken to the Columbus Zoo, including three leopards, a grizzly and two macaque monkeys.

Owner Terry Thompson, who had been charged with animal cruelty 11 times since 2004, was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted wound when authorities went to the farm on Tuesday after reports of animals running free, Lutz said. They found gates and animal pens open, but no suicide note.

"There were animals running loose outside the fenced area," he said. Some, including primates, were captured at the farm.

Authorities said they had received about 35 calls about the menagerie over the years, ranging from animals running loose to animals not being treated properly, Lutz said.

"We've handled numerous complaints here, we've done numerous inspections here," he said. "So this has been a huge problem for us for a number of years."

There were complaints that Thompson left horses undernourished, then fed them to lions when they died, said Larry Hostetler, executive director of the Muskingum County Animal Shelter. However, he met the bare minimum requirements for keeping the animals, he said.

Thompson was released last month from federal prison on a firearms conviction. Lutz said Thompson's wife, Marian, was no longer living at the farm.

Lutz described the freed animals found as "mature, very big and aggressive."

The sheriff said they tried to shoot some animals with tranquillizer guns but encountered problems.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

 

[uncleyap]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...F_H4tg?docId=fa5a11969d98464f9783f49220d1f2f0

Lions and tigers shot in Ohio; owner freed them

By ANDY BROWNFIELD, Associated Press – 22 minutes ago

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Amid expressions of horror and revulsion at the killing of dozens of wild animals in Ohio — and photographs of their bloody carcasses — animal rights advocates agreed there was little local authorities could have done to save the dangerous creatures once they began roaming the countryside after their owner released them before taking his own life.

Sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals — including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions — after Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County Animal Farm near Zanesville, threw their cages open Tuesday and then committed suicide.

"What a tragedy," said veterinarian Barb Wolfe, of The Wilds animal preserve sponsored by the Columbus Zoo. "We knew that ... there were so many dangerous animals at this place that eventually something bad would happen, but I don't think anybody really knew it would be this bad."

As the hunt winded down on Wednesday, a photo showing the remains of tigers, bears and lions lined up and scattered in an open field went viral provoking visceral reactions among viewers, some of whom expressed their anger and sadness on social networking sites.

Some local townspeople also were saddened by the deaths. At a nearby Moose Lodge, Bill Weiser said: "It's breaking my heart, them shooting those animals."

Authorities said the slain animals would be buried on Thompson's farm.

Will Travers, chief executive of the California-based Born Free USA animal welfare and wildlife conservation organization, said police had no choice but to take the action they did.

"It's a tragedy for these particular animals, for no fault of their own they've been shot, and I can see how difficult that decision was for the police," he said.

Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo, also defended the sheriff's decision to kill the animals, calling deaths of the endangered Bengal tigers especially tragic.

The animals destroyed also included six black bears, two grizzlies, a baboon, a wolf and three mountain lions. Six — three leopards, a grizzly bear and two monkeys — were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo.

"It's like Noah's Ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," Hanna said.

A wolf was later found dead, leaving a monkey as the only animal possibly still unaccounted for in the mostly rural community of farms, widely spaced homes and wooded areas about 55 miles east of Columbus.

Officers were ordered to kill the animals instead of trying to bring them down with tranquilizers for fear that those hit with darts would escape in the darkness before they dropped and would later regain consciousness.

"These animals were on the move, they were showing aggressive behavior," Sheriff Matt Lutz said. "Once the nightfall hit, our biggest concern was having these animals roaming."

Veterinarian Wolfe had tried to save a tiger in a heavy bramble by using a tranquilizer dart, but the animal charged her then tried to flee. It had to be shot and killed by sheriff's deputies.

"I was about 15 feet from him and took a shot, and it didn't respond too much, and I thought we were OK, but within about 10 seconds he roared and started toward me," she said.

Sheriff's Deputy Jonathan Merry, among the first to respond on Tuesday, said he shot a number of animals, including a gray wolf and a black bear who charged him from 7 feet away. He said he's an animal lover and only took pride in knowing he was protecting the community.

"All these animals have the ability to take a human out in the length of a second," he said.

The Humane Society of the United States criticized Gov. John Kasich for allowing a statewide ban on the buying and selling of exotic pets to expire in April and called for an emergency rule to crack down on exotic animals until the state comes up with a permanent legal solution.

"Every month brings a new, bizarre, almost surreal incident involving privately-held, dangerous wild animals," Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society, said in a statement. "In recent years, Ohioans have died and suffered injuries. ... Owners of large, exotic animals are a menace to society, and it's time for the delaying on the rulemaking to end."

Activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also called for emergency regulations and pointed the finger at Gov. John Kasich, saying the incident should serve as his "wake-up call."

"Surely, after this latest incident, enough blood has been shed for the state to take action," the group said in a statement.

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.

Born Free USA says it has tracked 1,500 attacks on humans or other animals, and escapes by exotic animals since 1990, with 86 being in Ohio. Travers said there's an urgent need for legislation that addresses the competency of Ohioans seeking to own exotic pets and owners' ability to provide for the animals' welfare as well as public safety.

"Legislation should be there to protect the animals from the people and to protect the people from the animals," he said.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said Wednesday the governor had called on Lutz to commend the job he had done and to ask him to be part of the process of putting into law what the executive order failed to do.

"Clearly, we need tougher laws. We haven't had them in this state. Nobody's dealt with this, and we will. And we'll deal with it in a comprehensive way," Kasich said earlier in the day at a meeting of Dix Communications editors at which The Associated Press was present.

The Ohio Veterinary Medical Association also called for exotic animal regulations. U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland called the deaths of the escaped animals preventable.

"By enacting more stringent restrictions on owning exotic pets in Ohio, tragedies like this one can be avoided in the future," he said in a statement.

Thompson, 62, had had repeated run-ins with the law and his neighbors. Lutz said that the sheriff's office had received numerous complaints since 2004 about animals escaping onto neighbors' property. The sheriff's office also said that Thompson had been charged over the years with animal cruelty, animal neglect and allowing animals to roam.

He had gotten out of federal prison just last month after serving a year for possessing unregistered guns.

Thompson had rescued some of the animals at his preserve and purchased many others, said Columbus Zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters.

It was not immediately clear how Thompson managed to support the preserve and for what purpose it was operated, since it was not open to the public. But Thompson had appeared on the "Rachael Ray Show" in 2008 as an animal handler for a zoologist guest, said show spokeswoman Lauren Nowell.

Associated Press writers Ann Sanner, Julie Carr Smyth, JoAnne Viviano and Doug Whiteman in Columbus contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[uncleyap]

n a Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011 photo, a dead lion lays by the fence on Terry Thompson's farm near Zanesville, Ohio. Police killed dozens of animals Tuesday that escaped from the wild-animal preserve where the owner's body later was found. Warning that more animals still were on the loose, officials expected up to four school districts to cancel classes as the remaining bears, big cats and other beasts from the Muskingum County Animal Farm were hunted down. (AP Photo/Heather Ellers and Dustin Burton)

 

[lianbeng]

lianbeng asks uncleyap, "why SPCA n animal lovers never cowpehcowboo abt animal cruelty? last time our zoo also got black panther escaped then attacked a boy mah."

 

[uncleyap]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/20/us/ohio-animals-on-loose/

No more animals on the loose in Ohio, sheriff says
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 20, 2011 -- Updated 0545 GMT (1345 HKT)
A sign warns drivers of the exotic animals loose outside Zanesville, Ohio, on Wednesday. It appears that Terry Thompson, 62, released 56 animals and then died from a self-inflicted wound, an official said. As of Wednesday afternoon, authorities said they had killed 49 animals and taken six to a zoo. A sign warns drivers of the exotic animals loose outside Zanesville, Ohio, on Wednesday. It appears that Terry Thompson, 62, released 56 animals and then died from a self-inflicted wound, an official said. As of Wednesday afternoon, authorities said they had killed 49 animals and taken six to a zoo.
HIDE CAPTION
Exotic animal farm in Ohio

Officials: The owner killed himself after freeing the animals
A missing monkey may have been eaten, expert says
Authorities say they had to kill the animals
None of the deputies are equipped with tranquilizer guns

See up-to-the-minute coverage from CNN affiliates WBNS, WCMH, WOUB and WSYX.

(CNN) -- An Ohio sheriff believes no more exotic animals are on the loose after his deputies killed 49 lions, tigers and other wild animals freed from a local farm by its suicidal owner.

Of the 56 animals released Tuesday night, only a grizzly bear, two monkeys and three leopards were taken alive, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said.

One monkey remained unaccounted for Wednesday night, but conservationist Jack Hanna, who assisted in the effort, said the animal may have been eaten.

"It looks like everything is taken care of," Hanna said. "There was one monkey left, and right now, we found a carcass of the monkey. We don't know if it was eaten."

The farm's owner, Terry Thompson, pried open cages and opened the farm's fences before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound Tuesday afternoon, Lutz said

None of the deputies are equipped with tranquilizer guns, Lutz told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

And with night falling Tuesday, he gave the order to kill the escaped animals.

"If this had been a 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock incident, in the middle of the day, odds are high that we may have been able to surround the area and keep everything contained," he said. "But our biggest problem that we had was nightfall. We had about an hour, hour and a half of light, and we just couldn't take the chance."
Jack Hanna: 'I'll never forget this'
Friend: Animal farm owner under stress
Safety of animal preserves questioned
Mayor: Exotic animal owner shot himself

As of Wednesday afternoon, authorities had killed 49 animals -- 18 tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, two grizzly bears, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon. Those captured alive were taken to the Columbus Zoo.

Hanna, the zoo's director emeritus, said he was upset by loss of "precious" animals, but defended the decision to use deadly force.

"To have no one hurt or killed here with 40-something animals getting loose is unbelievable," he told CNN's "The Situation Room."

Hanna led a team of experts who arrived with four tranquilizer guns late Tuesday in an effort to corral the animals. He said the drugs take several minutes to subdue an animal even with a good shot, and one tiger had to be killed Wednesday afternoon when it turned on a veterinarian after being hit with a tranquilizer dart.

Overnight, sheriff's deputies searched the eastern Ohio woods around the city of Zanesville with night-vision gear and patrolled in pickups, armed with shotguns. Flashing signs on the highways in eastern Ohio warned motorists Wednesday: "Caution. Exotic animals." Schools were closed, and some frightened residents said they were keeping to their homes as sheriff's deputies hunted lions, tigers, leopards and grizzly bears.

"Yeah, there's a lion on Mount Perry Road. ... I just drove by and it walked out in front of me and was standing there under the street light," one caller to 911 told deputies.

Zanesville Mayor Howard Zwelling said he received calls from people who were concerned that the animals had been killed. He said authorities were trying to use tranquilizers whenever possible.

But Lutz told reporters, "We are not talking about your normal everyday house cat or dog.

"These are 300-pound Bengal tigers that we have had to put down," he said.

Thompson's property is about 2 miles outside Zanesville. The 62-year-old had been released from a federal prison September 30 after pleading guilty earlier this year to possessing illegal firearms, including five fully automatic firearms. A civil case seeking forfeiture of firearms was pending, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Ohio's Southern District.

He also had been convicted of animal cruelty and was arrested several times for traffic violations.

Authorities were waiting on the results of an autopsy to determine the exact cause of his death, but Lutz said Thompson shot himself just after releasing the animals.

Sam Kopchak, Thompson's neighbor, said he saw lions and bears running free Tuesday evening, with one tiger chasing horses. Kopchak managed to get himself and his horse into his barn and telephoned his mother.

"It was like a war zone," Kopchak said when authorities descended on the property, set off the road named after Kopchak's family.

Kopchak described Thompson as aloof. He loved animals. Kopchak saw him driving one time with a baby black bear on his chest

CNN's Moni Basu, Jordana Ossad, Andy Rose, Jason Carroll, Ninette Sosa, Ed Payne and Maggie Schneider contributed to this report.

 

[uncleyap]

In other reports the matter looks like the zoo / farm had faced complains from animal rights etc, and govt was going to close it down and the owner is so pissed, he released all the animals before killing himself.

All the famiLEE LEEgime's national symbols were shot dead not even 1 left alive.