Posted on 10/18/2011 8:36:54 PM PDT by quantim
ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Dozens of animals escaped Tuesday from a wild-animal preserve that houses bears, big cats and other beasts, and the owner later was found dead there, said police, who shot several of the animals and urged nearby residents to stay indoors.
The fences had been left unsecured at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, in east-central Ohio, and the animals' cages were open, police said. They wouldn't say what animals escaped but said the preserve had lions, wolves, tigers, giraffes, camels and bears. They said bears and wolves were among 25 animals that had been shot and killed and there were multiple sightings of exotic animals along a nearby highway.
"These are wild animals that you would see on TV in Africa," Sheriff Matt Lutz warned at a press conference.
He called the escaped animals "mature, very big, aggressive" but said a caretaker told authorities the preserve's 48 animals had been fed on Monday. He said police were patrolling the 40-acre farm and the surrounding areas in cars, not on foot, and were concerned about big cats and bears hiding in the dark and in trees.
"This is a bad situation," Lutz said. "It's been a situation for a long time."
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
No just the carnivores.
Oh my.
That is as convoluted as the report, how did a person “ just released from prison” have a long time animal farm??? How did he have a short term animal farm. Some of those animals cost a lot of money, and a lot of up keep. Really strange.
There are several restaurants and gas stations less than a mile from there. I’d shoot, too.
He was in prison for gunrunning by all accounts. I think he had a fair bit of tax-free cash available.
Staffers from the Columbus Zoo went to the scene, hoping to tranquilize and capture the animals. The sheriff said caretakers might put food in the animals’ cages to try to lure them back.
Too late now.
They closed the schools to protect the kids ... from stray police shots.
East Central Ohio sector. He did a year in prison as an undercover agent.
sounds like the Cops took advantage of the situation and got a free safari hunting trip of a lifetime.
Every one of those cops should be fired, and prosecuted.
Not a joke here.This farm is exactly 5.3 miles on the other side of the woods from me.Our school district is one of them effected.Local news says there were 48 large animals and 24 have been shot.That still eaves several lions and a grizzly bear out there somewhere.
Terry was a Nam vet who was a helicopter pilot and could fly anything.He held a speed boat race record and used to own the Harley dealership here from the 1970’ until about 1993.I heard his wife just left him in the past week.He was sentenced to 1 year and one day in jail in 2010 and had been out for 3 weeks.He used to have a federal gun license and had let it expire and was arrested for the automatic weapons he still had.He must’ve just snapped is all I can say.They have had the animals for decades.
Would you rather one of the lions killed a kid?
He got in trobuel because he used to hold a federal gun seller license and still had possession of a few fully automatic weapons..I suspect he kept them because of the animals ad if anything happened and they needed taken out....
12 Monkeys
What caused him to lose his license? The convictions for animal cruelty?
They killed those animals for fun.
They should have called animal control, unless someone had actually been attacked or was in immediate danger.
There are cheetahs, lions and leopards running around. This is not an animal control situation. This is a public safety issue.
Unless they had hurt or were threatening to hurt someone, there was no reason to start executing them by the dozens.
Face it, this was just a bunch of hick cops getting their jollies off killing everything that moved, and using their badge as an excuse.
The police can't sweep the woods killing every wild animal they see for public safety.
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