By now, most of you have heard about the 50+ exotic animals that were set loose in Zanesville Ohio yesterday after preserve owner Terry Thompson set the animals free before committing suicide.
When reports that the animals were being shot dead hit the internet, there were mixed reactions as to the extent Ohio police were going to control the situation. Now the fury is being fuelled even more after photos of the dead animals have been released.
The photos are shocking and graphic and they can all be seen here but the question remains, did police do everything in their power to try and save the animals’ lives before shooting them dead?
Ohio police have said that they tried tranquilizing the animals several times before shooting to kill but the tranquilizer made the animals’ go crazy to the point where they were dangerous to citizens.
Regardless of their reasoning for shooting the animals dead, many people are still angry over the outcome. In total, most of the 50+ animals – which consisted of lions, tigers, bears, wolves, cheetahs and monkeys – were shot dead.
Do you think police handled the situation effectively – or should they have had the resources and skills to control the situation without killing almost all of the animals?
This is a terrible thing that has happened to endangered species. They could have been tranquilized and saved. See what society has come to trigger happy police man that do not care about anything.
Misty, the police called Jack Hanna in and he told them that attempting to tranquilize the more deadly animals would put them at an excelled enraged rate. They attemtped to tranq a tiger and he charged them. They had no other choice with this many wild animals on the loose. I mean 18 tigers lions and grizzilies in a rural town. As sad as it is it was the only option.
i agree with both misty and jake…my rational side says i understand why they did what they did…but then my animal lover side says why did they have to kill them!? there had to be other ways?! why didn’t they have some resources/plan in place if something like this happened, knowing this man had all these wild animals!? my heart is broken for those animals who lost their life because of and irresponsible man!! these farms need to stop! So hopefully this tragic event will lead to laws that prevent animal farms from even existing or from something like this to ever happen again! its just soo sad
….on a positive note( if there is one in this case)they were able to save 6 animals- one young grizzly bear, three leopards and two Celebes macaques (a breed of monkey).
i wish they were able to save more
Um . . . let’s see. Huge, wild, carnivorous animals – in fact the owner’s head was bitten by a big cat after he killed himself. Also a big cat ate one of the monkeys. One of the grizzlies that was shot charged a police officer. You cannot tranquilize animals in the dark, people. They run into the woods and you lose them and put human lives in danger. This situation is horrific. Misty, all of the animal rights people – ALL OF THEM – are saying that law enforcement had no choice in this matter. Your comment is ridiculous. Have you seen any of the interviews with the cops? It broke their hearts. Stop being a jerk.
This was a very sad day. WHY did this man have all these animals in the first place. They are not domestic animals and should not be allowed to be kept in captivity except by zoos with breeding programs designed to protect and ensure endangered animals don’t disappear from our planet Earth.
Really? So you’re saying a giraffe and a camel are going to kill a human? I’m sorry but if this was supposedly at dusk when it wasn’t because at 3:30 pm in RI I heard about it on my way to class then people should have been inside and stayed in their homes so they could capture these animals and not murder them!!! With the exception of Cedar Point in Ohio, nobody goes there anyway! So they should have left the animals alone in this podunk town till they captured them all!!! I’m disgusted with people thinking that your life is more valuable than an animal, that only has 1400 left in population verses our 7 billion!! A little people control would have done wonders out there!!!! Anyway there should have been inspectors out there weekly monitoring these animals if the town was so concerned with making money from permits! This guy had complaints so why does it take a tragedy to find a resolution? Don’t allow this many exotic animals on anybody’s property period! Anybody that has a beating heart and see’s the images of these animal’s strewn across the grass would want justification!!! What you people did out there was wrong and for anybody to justify it any other way than your just plain ignorant….GFY!!! Animals were roaming this planet long before us so get over it and get educated!
Ok RAR, one I have no idea why you are taking shots at Ohio THAT my friend is just plain ignorant. THERE WERE A COMBINED 35 TIGERS AND LIONS!!! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN? When you have Jack freaking Hanna telling you that you don’t have a choice but to kill these poor animals there is a serious problem! I would love to see how your native RI would handle this. Trap them with a bowl of chowda and lobster bisque? I don’t think so champ.
RAR, an animal’s life is not more important than a human’s, and I am disgusted to know that there is a human out there that thinks vice versa. If an animal attacks you, you will defend yourself, period. If you wanted to go help save them, you should of been hugging them, so the police wouldn’t shoot due to the endangerment of a human’s life. And after the tiger ate you, because it is an ANIMAL after all, the police may have the dignity to shoot it before it devowered your entire body. The truth is, RAR, animals cannot be reasoned with. They don’t have souls, and they were made that way before we were here. So you get educated so you can realize that that animal will not have any compassion towards you, so don’t show any to it. That’s just how God made this Earth. And if you are a Darwin follower, I believe that evolution includes the statement: The weak will die, and the strong will pervail. If the animal’s species is endangered, then they don’t have what it takes to live on this Earth on their own. I wish that no animals have to be killed, but it’s just the cycle of nature.
Ed –
Im going to have to disagree with you on a few things. Now let me start out by saying that im a HUGE animal lover and i completely understand and support the fact that they had to kill these unfortunate animals. HOWEVER – you have no idea if an animal has a soul. NONE of us know that. i Also dontt get where you say an animal can show no caompassion to us. You obviously have never met my dogs or any of the numerous dolphins that have saved countless humans. Now i understand we are talking about large beasts here and its different, but please dont make broad, generalized statements. Finally – the cycle of nature or survival of the fittest doesn/t apply when we are using guns. That applies to animal vs animal in natural terms – and lets be honest we wouldnt win that fight without guns…
Chris,
Thank you for proving my point. You can’t reason with animals.
You stupid human, whay ever made you think that your better.then they are, They were here first this is there world,.we just live in it, Mother Nature has a payback , Those were her baby’s not theres they had NO right to take a life that is not theres.
LOL!!! It’s good to get people fired up! There’s no reasoning with humans either. If a town is going to allow a person to have exotic animals and their emergency plan is to react to a situation like this is and shoot them well that my friend is wrong! Children, elderly and animals are innocent and look to us for love, compassion and nurturing. These animals are wild yes but surely they were probably just as scared being out there because they’ve been caged so long. As far as Jack Hanna is concerned the town needs a scapegoat in my opinion and things should have been handled alot differently. I don’t live in RI, I was driving thru when I heard this but RI would be smart enough in the first place not to allow 56 wild animals on somebody’s property! I have a Siberian Husky that I would take a bullet for as would I for any member of my family…extreme maybe but to me it’s love. These images of these poor animals are disturbing and hate on me all you want because after all life goes on! That being said it’s only a matter of time before the human race is extinct anyway. For the record CHAMP one more thing I forgot about OH is they have good fireworks! IGNORANCE is BLISS!!!!
How would you handle the situation then? How would you, in a timely manner because lions tigers bears and, wolves are loose in your city, safely capture 56 of them without injury? Love to hear it because there is no way. Thinking that something like that could be done is ignorant. BTW I have a German Shepherd that I would also take a bullet for but I would fire one to save that dog as well. “For the record” I LOVE all animals and I’m so sad to see these pictures and this situation. There were not any other options. Ignorance may be bliss but the ability to think outside a freaking box is heaven. You kill me with this the elderly and children look to us for compassion and nurturing. Yes they do however what are you wanting to do when a tiger in your backyard wants to “nuture” your kid. Here kitty kitty or grab a rifle? That could’ve happened because THEY WERE LOOSE IN THE TOWN!!!!! And I’m the ignorant one?
The town had warning so nobody would have been outside in my yard in the first place! I’m saying in this situation if a town allows the keeping of exotic animals they should have taking preventative measures and had people trained in this. Maybe less death could have occured. Another thing nobody should be allowed to have 56 caged wild animals on their property in the first place! This guy had complaints filed against him since 2004 so those animals should have been removed. Those animals didn’t ask to be caged up by some creep! I would like to think that if a person wants to harbor that many wild animals there is some compassion inside them…this guy had none. What the heck was the Giraffe doing to get shot? Eating leaves? Those damn herbivores!!!
I’m weary with hearing the sheriff did all he could do by killing all these animals, and they had no other option, they weren’t prepared for an incident like this, blah, blah, blah. They were aware of this man having these exotics, so a little preparation beforehand would have been very beneficial. They could have saved some of these animals, but this trigger happy sheriff would have none of it. Tranquilize them from a truck for God’s sake if they are going to charge after being darted. GEEZ, what a bunch of bloodthirsty, inept idiots. Hope this sheriff and all his gun blazing side-kicks get swift retribution. Most of these animals were still on the compound.
Outraged I know it’s horrible I am the biggiest animal lover of all animals and it’s sad, but think of this what if one of these beautiful creatures would have killed on of these officers, they have wives and children this is not the usual day for them at work. It’s a scary thing
to be confronted by these kinds of animals in your back yard literally. They got to go home to their familes in one piece.
they could have shot them in the leg if they were that big of a threat. they did not have to kill them. its inhumane and unnacceptable. they were endangered species. i think something should be done about the actions that took place.
it is SICKENING that all these beautiful animals were killed. buncha trigger happy dumb ass cops. they should of been calling ANIMAL COPS … not just acting like they knew what they were doing. i rather see 100 people killed then these endangered animals.
i hope our federal goverment presses charges on all involved with killing these animals sounds like a bunch of trigger happy cops really fucked up this time whats next kill all the sharks in the oceans dumb asses
I read the reply from Edward that says animals have no souls. How do you know. It’s also been said that animals don’t have feelings. Again, it’s been proven to be the opposite. There are cases of animals pining for their masters after their gone and I know of one such animal that died of loneliness. I’m not religious but we are all God’s creatures according to the bible so why wouldn’t they have souls. Anyway, I transgress. It is certainly a tragidy what has happened. Did the police have other options? Maybe. Maybe not. The only ones that know for sure are the people that were at the scene. I agree that no private individual should be allowed to have wild animals and certainly not in the quantity that this man had them. This case alone should make it clear and laws should be passed against the private ownership of animals such as this. Even though I disagree with zoo’s in general far better there than in the hands of a private citizen who may or may not treat them properlly. Remember, man is the one that made them endangered.
I am totally outraged but even more at the State of Ohio for allowing a law that should have regulated these situations to expire back in April.
As long as you do not sell, breed or display animals the fed does not regulate, however the man was supposed to have had outstanding issues of animal cruelty and was still allowed to keep endangered animals, because he operated a preserve.
Question is if the preserve was not open to the public, who knows what he was doing?
No night vision goggles or other devices available, I guess in Ohio as long as you commit a crime after dinner the option is to shoot first. No over crowded jails here!!!!
This man knew the animals would be hunted down and shot, he lived in this town everyday
I love that Ghandi quote: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” How great are we if we don’t hold those accountable who mistreat our animals?
What more is there to say.
I can’t beleave they shot all those animals. i understand that that is somthing you have to act on fast but, from what i see on the news and everything they didnt even start shooting the animals till day break. now tell me why didnt they have people come in a tranquilize them? I mean really? People shouldnt even be allowed to keep these animals! There ment to be in the wild not small cages so people can make money off of them. One day somthing like this is going to happen again, no one got hurt this time but you cant say the same thing about next time! Someone is going to get killed, then maybe someone will acully pass a law were you cant have these animals.
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore…
It is so crazy how these people dont understaned what these animals are going throw and there population is going to end up going down and they are wild animals they are not pets they need to be free out in the wild !!!