Dozens of wild animals, including bears, lions and wolves escaped from a wild-animal preserve after their owner opened their cages at his Ohio farm and then committed suicide.
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Dozens of wild animals, including bears, lions and wolves escaped from a wild-animal preserve after their owner opened their cages at his Ohio farm and then committed suicide.
Authorities shut down schools and warned residents to stay indoors as orders were issued to shoot and kill the animals.
The local sheriff, Matt Lutz of Muskingum County told the New York Times that authorities had killed 43 or 44 animals of roughly 50 believed to be on the loose.
It’s unfortunate that authorities did not choose to use tranquilizers to capture the animals, instead of taking the reckless and heartless decision to gun them down.
Update (via Gawker) (October 19, 9:30pm EST): In all, 49 of the 56 animals (including bears, lions, wolves, monkeys and 18 rare Bengal tigers) were killed, the majority of them wandering not further than a few hundred feet from their pens. Six more — three leopards, a grizzly bear and two monkeys — were shot with tranquilizer darts and sent to the Columbus Zoo, where they are currently in quarantine.
Image Source: Johan GRIL/Flickr
Disgusting. Shoot the people – we’re not an endangered species – we could stand to lose a few. I’m embarrased for my species.
I live not far with this occurred and this was a horrible, horrible moment for Ohioians. I, too, struggled with the fact that all the animals were not tranquilized, but I have come to have more compassion for the police officers and how they handled the situation. This happen during the dark of night. I doubt that many were trained to use a tranquilzer gun and if it was used incorrectly, could have made the situation worse. Facing a 300 lb hungry Lion is not something the officers were trained to handle. The lose of life saddens me to the core, but the state should have laws to prevent people from keeping wild animals, especially with the number of animals, on a private home or farm. Let’s use this moment to do better and judge less..
This is fucking sickening… Gunning down a confused, lost, scared animal? What is WRONG with people? They’re the ones who deserved to be shot.