Posted on 10/20/2011 1:31:53 PM PDT by smokingfrog
A Zanesville cop who was hunting down ferocious animals released by their owner came within just a few feet of being mauled by a charging bear, killing the animal with a single shot from his service revolver.
The black bear dropped dead just seven feet from Deputy Jonathan Merry, he told ABC News.
Merry and other deputies relived their efforts to stalk tigers, lions, wolves and bears into a rainy night that at times left them feeling like the hunted. By Wednesday afternoon, 49 of the 50 animals released by Terry Thompson were confirmed dead, ending a potentially catastrophic threat to people in the area.
Merry, an animal lover who grew up on a farm, was the second officer to arrive at Thompson's private preserve in Zanesville, Ohio, Tuesday evening. Thompson had killed himself with a handgun moments after releasing his dangerous menagerie.
Merry, 25, arrived to find a Bengal tiger, two black bears and a female African lion contained by nothing more than a livestock fence along the roadway.
When a wolf started running south, the officer followed it in his patrol car.
"It turned west, which is opposite, even further of the Thompson residence. I was then instructed by my sergeant over the radio to take the wolf down," Merry said.
He pursued the wolf into a hay field, got out of his vehicle and shot it.
But soon, he was facing another, much larger, problem. His commanding officer told him a lion had been cornered back at the Thompson home. He headed back, but instead of finding a lion, he was confronted by an angry bear.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The guy that killed himself and let them loose was apparently despondent due to the property taxes and income taxes that he owed.
Key word there is ‘normal’.
Nothing about these animals’ existences was normal. We shouldn’t expect their behavior when suddenly turned loose to be normal.
Maybe the animal felt trapped. It likely was to some extent. It certainly would have been terrified. That is sad and tragic and also a very dangerous situation.
But the cops aren't at fault, the dead nutjob is.
I agree. A zoo with that many and type of animals requires a lot of staff just to feed and clean up the poop.
Would be interesting to know what this operation looked like.
No way was one guy running this.
This is nothing compared to some of the other threads on this subject. Cop-haters, closet ALF sympathizers and others telling those of us who live near the scene that they know more than we do.
His wife, who left him as soon as he was released from prison.
“Things can get ugly if they want the food you’re carrying, storing, etc...”
If the animals hadn’t been fed for days, which is what I’ve heard, then *you* look like food to them.
And of couse while you’re trying to deal with the bear, one of the 35 hungry big cats is stalking your blind side.
I don’t like trigger-happy cops shooting pets any more than the next Freeper. But in an extreme situation like this - and almost every one of these animals was dangerous - then I’m not going to second guess the responsible parties at the scene.
Ping
Indeed. These drooling morons have ruined this thread.
However, I would rather they picked their collective noses on a thread like this, instead of the threads about LEO’s getting murdered in the line of duty.
So many lowlifes—so little time.
Ping for animals list.
.....”...service revolver...”
I’ll give them a pass on that one. Some terms get so ingrained in the culture, that they are hard to shake, even when they are no longer accurate. It is sort of like calling a digital recorder a “tape recorder”, or the place you buy your Metrocards a “token booth”.
We ain’t got to show you no stinkin’ badges!
I agree. Jack Hanna also pointed out that since this took place at night, tranquilizing the animals was not a safe option.
It is very sad that all these animals (especially the rare tigers) had to be killed, but it is the fault of the idiot/coward who let them loose and killed himself, not the police who had to deal with the emergency he created.
(Still thinking of a tiger sitting atop my kid's backyard playhouse, and shuddering.)
And, I can believe that a Black Bear would "charge". One time I almost got ran over by one that was startled off a ridge by a couple of other hunters. He wasn't necessarily "charging", per se, but he was running flat out downhill, and I happened to be in his way. I yelled an expletive, and luckily he went around me. Didn't even have time to get my shotgun up, not that #4's (6's? don't remember) would likely have made the problem worse, anyway.
Scared the hell out of me, I can't imagine dealing with that and 49 other large predators, all at the same time.
Naturally these police will be the target of every PETA nutjob on the planet.
The SFPD managed with a .40 cal on a P'O’d Bengal tiger in the infamous Christmas tiger attack. There were 4 officers involved so volume had it's own quality.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/26/MN0LU4M2T.DTL
>>There is no such thing as a semi-tame wild animal. Domesticated animals were tamed by breeding the docile ones and ruthlessly culling (usually killing and eating) the aggressive ones over many generations. <<
There was a fantastic Nova show on this.
A group of researchers took a litter of puppies and raised them. The same group then took a litter of wolf cubs and raised them. By the time the cubs were 8 weeks old, they were wild and would no longer look a human in the eye. They tore up the house and had to be put back into the pack.
They showed a Russian farm that bred Silver Fox to be pets. It took nearly 20 years of breeding (just like you stated) to get them to be totally friendly. However, they also began to change in other ways. The tails got shorter and their coloring began to look more like huskies. Now they sell them for 5000.00 a piece!
Yeah, remember the "tame" chimp that ripped the woman's face off and chewed off her fingers and toes?
Sure, because there are thousands of other attacks by black bears every year.
Or at least hundreds.
Dozens? A dozen?
I also looooove the part where Officer Deadeye is instructed by his commander to “take down” a wolf... another animal with no history of attacking humans.
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