Terry Thompson was the Zanesville man who unleashed his private collection of exotic animals on the city before taking his own life, causing a living nightmare for residents and authorities that played out over the airwaves all across the nation.
That’s not how Joe Schreibvogel, president of the United States Zoological Association, sees it. He thinks Thompson was murdered to further the state’s efforts to ban exotic animal ownership.
Video below, via Ohio Capital Blog. The fun starts at the 3 minute mark. We take it as seriously as this guy takes his hair. What would Tuesday morning be without a whackadoodle conspiracy theory, after all?
This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2012.
whackadoodle conspiracy theory? The fact that this type of attack on exotic animal owners/sanctuaries has been going on for years. Animal rights supporters who believe, “better off dead”, or “set them free”, have repeatedly come onto private property, cut cages to “free” the animals. They have purposely contributed to the killing of these animals, and they have no regard for public safety. For the most part, when a new bill is about ready to be introduced into legislation, either on a state or federal level, there has been escapes and/or attacks that have surfaced to support the new bill.
I find it offensive that you put such idiotic comments against someone that is trying to tell you, warn you what is happening NOW. The exotic animal owners of the nation are under attack.
Sam Mazzola was found BOUND, GAGGED with a sex toy and a mask, and it was CONFIRMED that someone else was there and they LEFT HIM THAT WAY , and he was ALIVE at that point. Yet this was deemed AN ACCIDENT? To the world, the media made it look like Sam was this sex crazed pervert, but how in the heck did he BIND and GAG HIMSELF?
AR Activists figure (and I quote) that it is more important to save the “species” than the individual. To put that into simple terms, the loss of one animal is the gain of the species in their eyes.
It’s a well known fact that when someone is exposing something that was intentionally brushed under the rug, the first line of defense is to bash the messenger. Discredit them in such a way to make you feel foolish to even consider what they say is truth. Conspiracies & cover ups go back as far as the beginning of time. This massacre of innocent animals occurred in Oct. 2011 & I’m yet to have someone explain to me how this was possible for one man to accomplish. Anyone? No one can because when you put the FACTS out there instead of the name-calling or making fun of someone’s hair, you will find it is IMPOSSIBLE. The person that wrote this article should be used as a prime example of the grade school mentality they use to deflect readers/listeners away from the truth. But please always remember & never forget…. THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS SURFACE IN THE END.
Better to tell the truth and be called names than lie and be believed. All of the evidence points toward some kind of attack on Terry Thompson. I cannot believe that it was coincidence that the weapon that might have killed Terry Thompson was registered in the name of one of the deputies that was there during the shooting of the animals.
Before you bring out the name-calling and ridicule, do some kind of research. There are facts that are freely available to Scene Magazine. It doesn’t seem like your reporters took the trouble to do any research.
Get a clue Ohio. This guy is probably on to something. Seriously, why were the locks cut with lot cutters and not opened with the keys he owned? That alone raises my eyebrows!
Ohio is being lead around by their government officials……like a bull with a ring in his nose. Looks like the media is closed minded when it comes to “leading” information that could reveal a coverup………someone needs to “wake up” or Ohio is lost……
They set people’s homes on fire and say they’re “ecstatic” when the family barely escapes with their life. I can’t believe that they’ve been doing it for thirty years in the U.S. and longer in the U.K. without killing someone. I don’t really believe it. You can’t go bombing laboratories and homes and cars for thirty years using minions who have nothing for brains without getting someone killed.
If there was just one proven case of a person being murdered by these people then there would be you know what to pay and a lot of angry citizens collecting. They would never be able to get a program off the ground again.
This man, from the time he wakes till the time he falls asleep fights to bring the truth to light. I am appalled by the comment from the reporter on this article.
The fact of the matter is, is that Ohio does not have an exotic pet problem. They have a problem with extreme money hungry terrorists though! Wake up Ohio! The very same people that are going after exotic pets will come after your horses, cows, chickens, dogs and cats next. Don’t you get it yet?
I would have really loved to see the commentary in its entirety. Because this small segment of it only shows to prove how this “reporter” is biased with their opinion. What happened to fair and non biased reporting? Yellow journalism is alive and well isn’t it?
In any case the whole outcome was handled so very poorly, Those animals were shot to death when they could have been tranqued with a dart as the Akron Zoo was already mobilizing. That with a quick call the Cle Metroparks most if not all of the animals could have been spared….
So go ‘eff yourself PITA for looking the other way during this massacre….
Well folks…Vince isn’t exactly Pulitzer Prize material anyway so you gotta take the good with the not so sharp….
Sorry dude you took the wrong line on this one…
Ohio, get a clue when are the rest of you going to wake up? If we allow this bill to be voted in as is we are welcoming in HSUS, PETA, and every other AR group to write our laws. First, it’s the exotics, then guess what it’s going to be our farms! Ohio is an Ag state that thrives on that business. I am rather appalled that you focused on the Zainesville issues and not the real ones. As for the “wackdoodle” comment those willing to speak up and out are always the ones thought to be nuts and in the end were the one that was right.
Mr. Grezegorek, the only think that is “whackadoodle” about this gentleman’s interview is your coverage of it! Mr. Schreibvogel alleges that a conspiracy involving murder, the slaughter of animals, the criminal involvement of law enforcement officials and defrauding of the citizens of Ohio has occurred and the best that you can come up with is clever name calling?! I hope that Scene Magazine can get a skilled reporter on this case because I want to know more about what this man has to say. Scene should send it’s “whackadoodle” reporters like you to cover stories on topics like bake sales and water aerobics classes.
who the heck is clevescene? haha and what kind of a name is VINCE GRZEGOREK? Polish? lol… ok, no point in reading it. Nothing against polish people of course but, it’s people like this that make us giggle so much at them.
Be careful people, they are just trying to get traffic to their shotty little site. Don’t give them the satifaction.
VINCE GRZEGOREK you are an embarrassment for this paper… as a journalist are you supposed to write an unbiased story… or do they pay you to make fun of people instead… I can see that you are not a true journalist… you sir are a moron… and one that hasn’t a clue …..You don’t know Joe …he knows what he is talking about and in my personal opinion ….. exotic owners are being prosecuted ( with no chance to defend themselves ) because of the Zanesville incident which is suspicious to all that can put 2 and 2 together . We are fighting to Kill This Bill because it is unjust and will only be used to carry out mass murder on exotics who have done nothing wrong and to torment and terrorize innocent people and turn them into criminals as they do what they have to do to save and protect the animals they love so
dearly
a decent report is suppose to report the news unbiased, unfortunately this isn’t the case with Mr Vince Grzegorek. To comment on the way some wheres his hair to make him sound less the credible, give me a break. The truth is out there and documented. Take the time and do you research. It’s this kind of attitude that makes people not read or believe the news. Those of us in the animal industry know what is going on and it needs to be exposed a good reported would do his job and find that out!!! The USZA is on the front line of this and every exotic animal issue to make sure that not only the public is safe but the animals are as well
People have no idea of what is going on in Ohio and the united states with these exotic animal bans. They are being pushed by Peta/the humane society of united states in which both presidents of these company’s are vegan and they believe no one should own any pets at all no dogs or cats no livestock no exotics because these animals are slaves to humans and should be free total animal liberation from humans.They believe no one should eat meat because it is murder of a fellow being of the plant. They have done a real good job at fooling people with the ads on TV that they are saving animals dogs and cats and then turn around and use the money to promote their vegan lifestyle and to pass laws to ban pets and to hurt the farmers so there will be no meat to eat Ohio voted and passed a law to protect farm animals from these people just last year because they was attacking our farmers . People need to wake up and stop giving them money they are not what you think they are if you want to help animals do it locally these big animal rights people are nothing more then a scam. These vegan groups support the ALF animal liberation front and are known terrorist to the FBI. Ohio has had two exotic animal owners killed in the last year and both made out to look like crazy sex perverts and that was no accident. These animal activist Peta/the humane society of united states/ mercy for animals/aspca all need to be stopped and their vegan ways. They believe in killing a human to save hundreds of animals is OK and you do not have to believe me do your own homework and check out the vegan lifestyle for yourself. These animal bans need to stop and Ohio and other states need a Law to protect the animals and owners from these crazy vegans. KILL THIS BILL SB 310 TODAY.
This is typical biased reporting once and for all you had a chance to do something right about this story in Zanesville but you chose to drop the ball. You should be ashameed of yourself. More answers are needed here. Why hasn’t the FBI done an investigation. The autopsy is suspect to say the least come on where is justice? Oh ya its in the hands of the players with the money. Oh let me see should I use bolt cutters or my keys? I will use bolt cutters then before I shoot my self I can cut my balls off. Hello wake up america and smell the HSUS stink.
I’ve been getting numerous notices for replies that don’t show up here. Is someone staying up all night trimming those replies?
Um, wow, people are really, really stupid. I’m glad to see that all the nuts are out in full force on this one. Owning exotic animals is stupid, but the only thing more stupid is thinking the government will come to your house, kill you, and then release your precious animals to undermine anyone else that owns said exotic animals. So we really have people that think the government will come to the homes of exotic animal owners and kill them? Exotic animals are such a hot button for the government that it will resort to KILLING citizens over it, yet people that are active in other issues that are a whole lot bigger and more threatening to the government get a free pass? Oh, right, because the reason why Seal Team 6 didn’t kill Osama for so long was because they were tied up murdering exotic animal owners aka taking care of the true greatest threat to America’s stability.
The scary part is these are the people that are putting our elected officials into office.
I love it. All these hippie animal people see this article online and then make profiles on Scene so they can comment on it and criticize the writer. Go back to the woods you freaking whackjobs, no one likes you or wants your garbage on this site. These people talk about fair and unbiased, then you see one skank has a picture of an ugly lady kissing a tiger (or some other dumb animal, I don’t really care what the hell it is) cub. Yeah, I bet the person who likes to kiss tiger cubs is really fair and balanced, they obviously don’t have an opinion one way or another.
You talk about getting the facts right, how about get your head out of your ass? It’s a shame that these animals were killed, but it would have been more of a shame if they got into town and ate a little kid or maimed a person. Seriously though, these psychos on here are so upset about their exotic animal friends they just spew their garbage all over the page. No one is coming to get you except maybe the alien mothership, and that freaking thing can’t come soon enough to pick your dumb asses up. Now, you dolts are probably all like “no silly, we don’t believe in the mothership, LOLZ” but the jokes on you because I don’t give a crap what you believe in. You’re stupid enough to give this guy any sort of credibility and weigh in on a writer you’ve never met, or read anything from, on a site you’ve never visited and know absolutely nothing about.
I can only hope you idiots haven’t figured out how to mate, or at the very least you’re too busy banging your tigers and peacocks or whatever else the hell you own. You people are freaking nuts.
ColdHardTruth By the “name calling” and references you made to animals and people who love their animals….I am sure your mother is proud…….. or maybe she did not let you have a pet when you grew up, so you need therapy. Well, while we are loving our animals and supporting their well being, you my friend, can kiss the guy in the next cell……cause most animal haters end up in prison…….
I’m not running around with a bunch of freaking wild animals so yeah, I’m one up on everyone else here. And I had NORMAL pets like NORMAL people did, I wasn’t out kissing bears and tigers and crap like that. Yeah, after realizing people like this are out there, I do need therapy. Scares me to think these kind of people vote and are out in society, let alone on the internet. And not sure why the fact I don’t like to jerk off tigers makes me an animal hater, but whatever. Coming from you, really makes no difference to me. By the way, glad you’ve contributed to this site and not just commented on this one article because you have a hard on for exotic animals.
You guys should all be ashamed, honestly. Being mean and angry won’t get you anywhere, and that’s all I see on here. However, I do see what looks like a concentrated effort by the USZA and its members to flood this page with comments that are pro their side, and that’s wrong. You guys are drowning the discussion by flooding the page and ruining any chance of dialogue. That’s just as bad as petty insults, if not worse.
so since someone said that USZA members are flooding this page with comments, I decided to see how many possible USZA members I could find:
Sara Serval – 1 comment, picture of exotic animal on profile
Vera Newberry Chaples – 1 comment, picture of exotic animal on profile
Ronnie Sands – 1 comment, picture of her holding exotic animal on profile
Thomas Kirby – 3 comments, all on this one story
Jesica Hanline Sanders – 1 comment
Peggy Rice – 2 comments, both on this story, picture of exotic animal on profile
Deborah Justice Cutrell – 1 comment
Kelly Leigh-Anderson Ahearn – 1 comment, picture of exotic animal on profile
Janice Metzger – 1 comment
Connie Slagle – 1 comment, picture of animal on profile
mygypsylei – 1 comment
Julie Walker – 1 comment, picture of exotic animal on profile
Jim Howd – 1 comment
Kevin Bandy – 1 comment
Meanwhile, here are the rest of the people that commented:
cbrbart – 310 comments, a legitimate CleveScene user
AdamHall – 178 comments, a legitimate CleveScene user
ColdHardTruth – 31 comments, a legitimate CleveScene user
WowPeopleAreJerks – only 2 comments, but a member since Jan 25th, so a legitimate CleveScene user
Coincidentally, all the people with only 1 comment from the top list are all against the author of this post and seem to agree on the same things. Their only comments on this website have also only been on this one story. From that, I can conclude that these people saw this story, made an account here, and then spammed the message boards with their pro-exotic animal agenda. They know nothing about Cleveland Scene, what it is, what it does, and have 0 interest in Cleveland.
It seems that the USZA is not against using underhanded tactics to make it seem like the majority of people feel a certain way about something. At first I thought that people disagreeing with the majority were wrong, but now it seems that I got things backwards.
To: The complete picture. So, you are spouting off about how members of the USZA should not post their opinions? OMG… are you really that ignorant to think that we as individuals can’t have our own opinions? The fact of the matter is, is that you are just angry when you read the truth. Maybe instead of puting an attack out there on a valued animal advocacy group that does real work for the animals…. you can take your effort and time to actually READ the police reports and autopsy reports and THEN, come back here and list all of the differences between the two?
Seems you have a hard on for anyone that speaks the truth and that feels that name calling on any article is in bad taste. Maybe you should look up this phrase: Yellow journalism. And then tell me if this report was fair and unbiased.
Maybe you should use your efforts and time to go back to school and learn a little bit more about diplomacy. Have a nice day.
OK, I am, first and foremost, an American. Although I do not live in Cleveland nor Ohio, recently there have been things that are happening in Ohio that have created an interest in exotic animal owners all over America. I thought it was part of the American media process to follow a story and post comments. I did not realize that the only opinions warrented on this site was “from long term members only”? I thought anyone interested in a topic could post? It seems that we as members of an organization that supports the responsible ownership of exotic animals, have appropriately follow the president of a pro-ownership animal organization and have an opinion about an article written concerning him or the subject of exotic animals. To view us as 1 comment or 31 comments, only shows the length of our membership to this site. I can tell you, after your post, I feel that this is a very closed minded site and support profiling an individual or group. Profiling leads to hate…….as we have seen in the media, recently. I hope that all of you who use the word “truth” in your name…..instead of your real name………will seek it in the future. My conversation ends here. Thank you.
This is to “TheCompleteTruth”… First of all, your name is already a misrepresentation of facts. I see you judging the people who posted comments by their profile picture. Again I see an attempt to deflect away from the issue at hand & turn it into a bashing of people & the animals they love. You’ve pegged everyone that has an animal in their profile pic of using “under handed tactics”. And then say the comments were only just posted to this story. Sad reality…. NONE of us have ever even heard of this Clevescene’s existance until we were made aware of the personal attack against a person who is stating facts of an incident, a VERY TRAGIC incident, that needs to be further investigated. Because as my comment states, no one has ever been able to explain how one man could do these acts, let alone inflict the bodlily harm to himself & then continue on to commit suicide. So since you seem to enjoy digging deeper into who people are, then please dig deeper into what really happened on that cold rainy day in Zanesville, October 2011. That, I’d be interested in reading, but your deflection of the facts, none of us have time for. Please do not judge people by what they love, this makes you less credible about anything you speak of. No one has the right to determine what animal deserves love & what animal doesn’t. To do so promotes hatred of a species. All animals are entitled to a safe loving environment. ALL animals. Try to focus on the story at hand, and not the person getting the truth out there.
My guess is that Cold Hard Truth and The Complete Picture are the same person, likely a little brother of Whiney Wayne. After validating themselves/himself as a legitimate clevescene user and using that to trash everyone – they/he just joined TODAY. Must have taken all of 15 minutes to run through pages making short jackass comments, 17 and 31 of them. The only one talking about jerking off a tiger is the sick phuq Cold Hard Truth. Probably so removed from anything natural, he only gets off on latex and hand sanitizer. I’m not a member of USZA, not a friend of the guy in the article (if you can call it that) and think the writer of this piece would keep a proctologist in business for years.
I wasnt aware our government murders citizens that own exotic animals. really doesnt seem to make much sense since this happened about a year before an election. risking the public finding out about something like this would guarantee not being re-elected and cause protests across the country. if this was credible id understand but it just does not make any sense at all.
I consider myself an animal lover in every aspect of the phrase, I am sad to admit that today I would rather see an exotic animal pent up in some private sanctuary and cared for, fed and protected than out in the wild were they face extinction by either lack of food because of human overcrowding or murdered for their toenail
I am happy to see that all the one-time comment people from the USZA have finally forgotten all about the horrible injustices that they suffered at the hands of Cleveland Scene.
Actually, I’m sure that in order to protect themselves from the government (which really WAS trying to kill them, it’s true, lolz!!!), they all tunneled underground with their exotic animals in tow. One of the animals, however, tragically got loose and proceeded to free other animals. The loose animals were all like snip-snap, oh-snap until there were no more happy hippie USZA members left. Then, the hungry animals killed and ate each other until there was only one exotic animal left. This animal eventually starved and died.
I’m not sure that story will be turned into a children’s book any time soon.
The people who murdered Terry Thompson put us in a bind, Browns fan. They left too much evidence that someone else did him in. We couldn’t dismiss that evidence in an effort to look good because of this thing called intellectual honesty.
Couldn’t just let the thread die, could you EBF? You just haaaaaad to mess with it
there are too many loop holes in the investigation report and the toxicology report. It leaves too many questions with no answers. I do not take the media’s word for it, nor it being the absolute truth – we all know how the media exaggerates. And the public have caught the media in quite a few lies over the years. The timing of this incident is questionable, the proposed animal ban was sitting in Ohio legislation – it had gone back to a study group – which could have taken years for it to resurface in the state house. Then all of a sudden – poof – Zanesville Massacre – and the bill was brought back to the house quickly. Some AR supporters had even predicted that something like this was going to happen, so that this bill would be brought back to be voted on. Did some AR fanatics/supporters/extremists set the animals free, and murdered the owner? could have been – it is a possibility. We have witnessed in the past, how extreme and at what great lengths, at what a deranged and mentally ill person is capable of. The recent case, is the teen who slaughtered people in a movie theatre, because he thought he was a participant in the BatMan movie. We can not rule out the possibilies.