Wednesday, October 19, 2011
(Warning: Graphic Image) The Exotic Animal Body Count
Posted by Vince Grzegorek on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 3:24 PM
Authorities worked overnight and through today in Zanesville tracking the some 58 tigers, lions, bears, wolves, and other exotic animals that made their way into public after Terry Thompson opened their gates last night before killing himself.
Yes, in almost all cases, that meant shooting the animals instead of attempting to tranquilize them. Plenty of folks are upset about that fact, though authorities have tried to explain their rationale.
A small handful were relocated to the Columbus zoo. The rest were killed.
After the jump, a picture someone in Muskingum County sent to the Columbus Dispatch of many of the dead animals that were shot. Warning: the picture is pretty graphic. And sad. (More photos can be found at this Dispatch slideshow.)
Speaking of...
Comments (95)
Showing 1-50 of 95
like
dislikeOmg! Are you fucking kidding me!! There had to have been a better way to get these animals back safely!
I suppose if a grizzly bear were ripping your front door off you'd think otherwise.
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THESE ANIMALS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN TRANQUILIZED. WHAT A WASTE!!!!
the point is they were not ripping anyones front door down,so why not try and tranquilize them first, they had the city on lock down,if they could find em to shoot them, they could have just as well tranquilized them.
Jesus Christ. All people would have had to do is stay in their stupid houses for a day. A bear that's been in captivity would be scared and hiding in the woods, not hulk-smashing through someone's front door in a fit of rage. Get a grip. THERE WAS NO NEED FOR THIS.
All of theses people were trying to protect you an your children!!An this is how they are thanked? they risked their lifes ,just to hear this,how Sad..Thank them!,an hope they take the same swift action next time for you!! Yes it looks bad,but you wouldnt be saying theses mean things if one of them had your child by the throat!
I can tell you this.. the Zanesville sheriff himself and the cops that followed his orders have lost all of my respect or caring for their dept. Thank them?? Are you serious? If these were animals out terrorizing people or pets that would be one thing but they weren't. they were domesticated animals that were scared and didnt know what was going on. This is not only sick it is a perfect example of stupid people jumping the gun and overacting and basically using very little appropriate judgment to handle an emergency situation. They are a disgrace and if I ever come across and Zanesville police officer involved in this or the sheriff it will be TOO SOON!
very unnecessary and very sad they could have tried so much harder ta save them...
Zanesville isn't Solon. People there are into hunting, so when the word comes down from the sheriff and a his deer huntin' deputies....well...its open season!
Are you kidding me Brandi ???? These were NOT domesticated animals.. THese are wild animals !! I understand that there could of been a different way of handling this but if any of those animals were in your yard or terrorizing your family would you of felt the same way? Probably not, they stated that some of them went to the Columbus Zoo but not how many. I seriously do not feel they were overreacting at all. These are dangerous and wild animals who were last fed on Monday. I still do not quite understand why tranquilzers were not brought in but I am not in charge. We live in OHIO not Africa where most of these animals belong !
It is a shame that they killed these animals, like the Bengal tiger and Lion which are endangered animals. they should have moved these animals to zoos long time ago!!
Only on TV does every city have every thing it needs with money the way it is for city's the cops are lucky they get cars and guns much more any thing else any Animal that is a possible threat to Humans has to be dealt with if that means putting the animal down then that's that it's simply the way it is.
Even if they had tranquilizer guns and enough not out of date drugs to deals with many large animals then they need large cages trucks to haul them a place to take them people to do all this on on and on.
A bad thing caused by a mentally ill care taker and handled the only way possible at the time I don't like the over all out come but some things just happen that way at least at the moment no persons where injured or killed.
It's amazing how many folks think tranquilizing these animals was even an option. Do you think a sheriff department in the middle of Ohio should have the appropriate equipment, sedatives, and training to equip dozens of officers to sedate wild animals from Africa in the dark? The animals in cages were transported to the Columbus Zoo, it's not like they killed anything that wasn't roaming free.
The blame belongs on the nutjob who released the animals and killed himself, nowhere else.
Tranquing animals takes a LONG time. They don't get darted and go down. They get darted and do unexpected things and eventually fall down. If you let them roam free, they will eventually kill people, they are wild animals.
to answer the tranquilizer supply question: helicopters/planes could have flown the sedatives in.
to respond to the knee-jerk reaction by the woman who was thinking these so-called law officials did the right thing 'because a child could have had their throat ripped" ... then stay in your house and don't let your kids outside, either.
Even Jack Hanna said on the news the animals were 'hunkered down' because of the rain.
This could have been handled better and the fella who had these animals should have been stopped long ago. ... jus my two cents.
Morons: Jack Hanna said killing them was necessary. The police were not trained to deal with African animals and needed to keep the town safe. It always take a few dead animals to get women riled up. Dead people they don't give a crap about though.
one was tranquilzed went nuts and had to be killed an other killed and ate one of the escaped monkeys O and your house is not safe from tigers lions and bears if they want to get in they will and how far would have these animals been able to roam as people were waiting these Animals were a threat to People and the nessary actions were taken period.
you people are all fucking idiots. by the time they could of got the resources together to safely tranquilize and catch these animals there would of definitely been some sort of attack. so as to protect the community they had no choice. im liberal too but you people are bleeding hearts. there just fucking animals theres tons of them in the world. get over it. and clearly the guy let them out to cause terror,panic or harm. but we dont wanna think about that now do we. fucking assholes.
Hehe listen to your self domesticated bear domesticated tigers ?? Nuff said ,cops good work but next time send the corpses my way It's winter an I can use a new bear fur or tiger fur coat bwahahaha
I'm not upset at the animals or the cops. Animals do what animals do, cops have to protect public safety. I'm mad at the dumb ass that killed himself setting them free who was too stupid to not realize they would kill them due to no law enforcement agency in America carries tranqualizers. If they would shoot an injured deer that's threatening public safety on a highway or street and stable owners shoot horses with broken legs. How damn dumb can you be to think someone is going to wait on a tranqualizer delivery while little Tommy is out back on his swing set around carnivores? Come on people, it's the dummy who lead them to their death fault, not the animals or the police.
the only comment i can make is that the news said it was getting dark. doesn't look too dark to me. so why not try and tranquilize these animals . maybe by someone who knew something about it. cleveland zoo keepers , columbus zookeepers, pittsburg zoo keepers, cincinnati zoo keepers. come on there were some other options
This just in....the muskingum county sheriff says a monkey is still on the loose and has herpes. So if you live in zanesville and feel particularly randy...
It's really not worth arguing about. The people who think the police were in the wrong are just ignorant buffoons who are just being swayed my the horrific picture. It really is horrific. But do some research and don't comment on a story based on the picture. Hey Sarah, your two cents would make more sense if you actually listened to Jack Hannah's entire interview. He said shoot-to-kill was indeed the only way, and I'm certain he knows more than anyone in this thread. As for you, Chrissyard marc ellis, the only reason bears weren't knocking on people's doors is because the police killed them first. They showed up around dusk and a stampede of man eating carnivores were making there way off the property toward the neighborhood. They only had handguns so they made the logical choice of choosing human life over animal life. Oh and for the record, at this time bears and lions were chasing the horses from the barn and I don't think they were playing tag. Should they of let them kill the horses? Or do you people only support animals that have the capacity to tear a human's head off with one swipe of their claw?
hopefully the laws will be reconsidered about hoarding up exotic animals just for peoples entertainment.. and exotic animals can stay in their native environment...this might have happened for a reason...i hope some good comes out of this..:-(
So that wasn't me, how the fuck do i delete my comment and my account my friend created
How could they shoot these innocent exploited victims? How hard could it have been to gather help from Aspca, zoo authorities to tranquilize and contain the animals. My heart aches at the sight of this massacre!!
i feel both ways....i feel sorry tht the animals had to be killed because of the idiot that set them free, but as a parent i would rather them be killed b4 they attacked sumone..it would of taken time to gather tranquilizers n the zoos to come in to help, these animals move very fast n could cover lots of ground if not stopped ...just sad tht they couldnt save more thn they did....n as a person tht doesnt watch much tv it was over a day b4 i even heard about it so tht means tht sumone else may not of heard about it in zaneville n could of been outside with their children n could of been attacked....wether domesticated or not if any animal feel treatened they will attack
Mary,
What you've just said
is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.
At no point in your ridiculous, incoherent response
were you even close to anything that could be considered
a rational thought. Everyone on this post is now dumber for having read it.
I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
I LOVE seeing all these people cry about the poor animals. The world is over populated. We have to do something about it. Someone do me a favor, make me a nice coat from the animal skin.
The police dept. that was in charge of getting the animals were not equipped to deal with this kind of issue. They didn't have the tranquilizers needed and they were worried about peoples safety. They did say that they tried to tranquilize a 300 pound adult male tiger and it became very aggressive. When you inject animals like these with tranquilizers they become very disoriented and become extremely aggressive. They had 50-some animals on the loose and were not capable of safely getting them all. They had the well-being of the community in their minds, not the animals. Jack Hanna also agreed that they did the right thing by putting them down. Yeah it sucks that all these beautiful animals were killed, but I think the police did the right thing. Also, just because they were so called "domesticated" doesn't mean that they aren't dangerous. Instincts take over in any animal, and they hadn't been fed in days. Don't freak out and scream that you hate the police, because if you had a 400 pound male lion coming after you, you would want them to shoot it. All I'm saying is that the police did the right thing and only rational thing given the circumstances.
They tried to tranquilize the animals and it didn't work so they had to shoot them and the animals were dangous and in a school zone, the animal or the kid. These animals were running loose threw out the night they had to do somthing. Love animals and hated to see it but..... you the rest!
WOW, I got an idea, anyone who seems to think that law enforcement acted in a less than professional manner on this issue should be required to be put in their boots. SEE WHERE THAT GETS YA! If it hadn't been raining and going dark then I'm sure they would have had more options. These people were not trained to handle wild animals but did what they could with what they had to work with. I'm sure if you had been in any danger you would have a different opinion.
It was dark when this happened, I'm sure rather see this than a (Lion,Tiger,or Bear) knocking down your door and feasting on your family!!! Tell me I'm wrong! Go ahead!
Sickening... they waited until it was daylight out to kill these animals..DAYLIGHT..not at night... senseless that they all had to be slaughtered in this brutal fashion and not tranq'd by someone qualified which probably would have been too much trouble & expense to go to so this route was just easier. Disgusting.
If we lived in africa or india, we would have treated them all much different, like a normal day. Americans need to stop being such wimps!
I guess the publicizing of all of these grotesque pictures we could all do without... it's just a tragic, sad, state that this nut who kept all of these WILD animals wasn't stopped a long time ago and punished for keeping WILD animals that are dangerous and should be left in the wild. How the hell did he get away with it? Aren't there laws about keeping these types of animals in captivity?? Lions, tigers, etc... What a mess.
And we wonder why there is so much violence everywhere. Such a waste - a life is a life - human or animal....this just makes me sick - I understand they were wild animals but they didn't ask to be where they were - So wrong on so many levels....
I know everyone is mad and I am too. But I blame the state on this one! No one should be allowed to get these types of animals. The police could not tranquilize the animals the amount of posion needed would take to long. The animal would be hit with the dart and then wonder off into the woods and passout. It was at night and they would lose track of the animal. Think about a cheetah being hit with a dart, it still can run 60mph good luck finding him in time to capture. They would break the perimeter and then what? I know this sucks but again I blame the state on this one. The Dispatch said Ex Gov Strickland had a bill to ban exoitc animals and the great Gov Kasich let the bill expire.
Well, you see, Ohio is one of the few states with no laws against keeping exotic animals! So, if exotic animals are released and the owner decides to off himself, I say shoot away! Better than your family getting feasted upon!
The problem is that these animals were taken out of their environment in the first place. They've been miserable shadows ever since.
Ohio get some LAWS to protect theses animals!! They do not belong in someones backyard! We as a whole failed these animals!
@ Katie... Read your state laws closer! The state of Ohio has none on the books!
Animals of this size cannot be tranquilized at night and that is when they were looking for them.
They did what they had to do.
It is sad but it was for the sake of safety. I have no issue with how they handled it. I want to know why the owner had all of these animals.
