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Got a text from Brian and had to look this one up!

ZANESVILLE, Ohio —

An Ohio sheriff says it's possible the owner killed himself at an Ohio wild-animal preserve where cages were opened and dozens of animals escaped.

When asked on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday whether farm owner Terry Thompson may have taken his own life, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz would only say: "Anything's a possibility at this point." He said authorities are awaiting autopsy results.

Police have killed dozens of animals. Lutz says he believes up to 35 of the 48 loose bears, big cats and other beasts have been accounted for. He says daylight will allow for a more accurate count.

Deputies responding to the initial reports of wild animals found Thompson dead Tuesday.

Schools are closed in the region on Wednesday and flashing highway signs are telling motorists: "Caution exotic animals."

Deputies Hunt Big Game on the Loose in Ohio
By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

7:38 a.m. | Updated The town of Zanesville, Ohio, was on lock down on Wednesday morning, with schools closed and drivers told to stay in their cars as police tracked dozens of wild animals who escaped from a nearby preserve.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that the man who ran the preserve — which included lions, tigers and bears, among other dangerous animals — had been found dead. It was unclear what killed the man, who was identified as Terry Thompson.

Speaking on CNN on Wednesday morning, Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo, advised residents: “Do not run.”

Deputies in Ohio’s Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office found themselves in unfamiliar territory Tuesday night: They were perched in the back of pickup trucks hunting for big game — lions, tigers, bears and even cheetahs — in the middle of Ohio.

Some four dozen animals escaped on Tuesday from an exotic animal farm in Zanesville, Ohio, and were loose in the area, according to the sheriff’s office. Law enforcement officials arrived at the farm, identified by The Associated Press as the Muskingum County Animal Farm, to find the owner, Terry Thompson, dead and the animal cages open.

“I would recommend staying in doors right now,” said Sheriff Matthew J. Lutz.

No attacks or injuries had been reported as of Tuesday evening, Mr. Lutz said, but several local schools announced they would be closed on Wednesday, at the sheriff’s recommendation.

In a news conference Tuesday evening, Mr. Lutz said that his deputies had shot and killed about 25 of the animals, including lions and wolves. That left about 20 more very large animals roaming the area.

“I’m going to say the word ‘mature,’ ” Mr. Lutz said. “Very big. Aggressive.”

He continued: “We’ve got a little bit of a list compiled. Mainly there were grizzly bears and black bears there. There were cheetahs, there were lions and there were tigers. Those are the primary things that we would be concerned with.”

Mr. Lutz said that while he was not certain the farm’s owner, Mr. Thompson, was current on his permits, he had been in the past. But that seemed to offer little comfort to the sheriff.

“Let’s just say, it’s a little loose,” Mr. Lutz said of the permit process, “in my opinion.”

I heard this on the news this morning. 

Another take on this...
There are a lot of answers to be found.  Like *how* he got dead, and *how* all the cages got opened...
Carol
http://news.yahoo.com/exotic-animals-escape-ohio-farm-owner-found-dead-024823691.html (http://news.yahoo.com/exotic-animals-escape-ohio-farm-owner-found-dead-024823691.html)

Exotic animals escape Ohio farm; owner found dead
October 19. 2011
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, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, giraffes, camels and bears. They said bears and wolves were among 25 escaped 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.

Neighbor Danielle White, whose father's property abuts the animal preserve, said she didn't see loose animals this time but did in 2006, when a lion escaped.

"It's always been a fear of mine knowing (the preserve's owner) had all those animals," she said. "I have kids. I've heard a male lion roar all night."

Lutz 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."

Lutz said his office started getting phone calls at about 5:30 p.m. that wild animals were loose just west of Zanesville on a road that runs under Interstate 70.

He said four deputies with assault rifles in a pickup truck went to the animal farm, where they found the owner, Terry Thompson, dead and all the animal cage doors open. He wouldn't say how Thompson died but said several aggressive animals were near his body when deputies arrived and had to be shot.

Thompson, who lived on the property, had orangutans and chimps in his home, but those were still in their cages, Lutz said.

The deputies, who saw many other animals standing outside their cages and others that had escaped past the fencing surrounding the property, began shooting them on sight. They said there had been no reports of injuries among the public.

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' open cages to try to lure them back.

Lutz said people should stay indoors and he might ask for local schools to close Wednesday. At least four school districts in the area canceled classes.

Lutz said his main concern was protecting the public in the rural area, where homes sit on large lots of sometimes 10 acres.

"Any kind of cat species or bear species is what we are concerned about," Lutz said. "We don't know how much of a head start these animals have on us."

A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which usually handles native wildlife, such as deer, said state Division of Wildlife officers were helping the sheriff's office cope with the exotic animals in Zanesville, a city of about 25,000 residents.

"This is, I would say, unique," spokeswoman Laura Jones said.

White, the preserve's neighbor, said Thompson had been in legal trouble, and police said he had gotten out of jail recently.

At a nearby Moose Lodge, Bill Weiser remembered Thompson as an interesting character who flew planes, raced boats and owned a custom motorcycle shop that also sold guns.

"He was pretty unique," Weiser said. "He had a different slant on things. I never knew him to hurt anybody, and he took good care of the animals."

I know where this "preserve" is - pass it when heading back and forth to Indy.  Zanesville has some interesting local pottery and I've bought some there.  Considered visiting the preserve on one of our trips...

Well, now they will be visiting you!  :o

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8835903/Ohio-residents-warned-as-agressive-wild-animals-including-lions-and-bears-escape-zoo.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8835903/Ohio-residents-warned-as-agressive-wild-animals-including-lions-and-bears-escape-zoo.html) Video

Jack Hanna, the animal guy who is often on Letterman and is with the Columbus Zoo was on Good Morning America this morning.  Bless his heart. He drove all night to get there from another state and said vets came with him and were working with the police dept.  They did have tranquilizer guns.  He said they had to be killed last night because if they had been tranquilized, they would have gone off and hid in the night.  Also a bear charged a cop and was killed.  It was raining there today and Hanna said it would be hard to tranquilize them but they wanted to do what they could to preserve these animals.

I saw a wolf that had been shot this morning and it really broke my heart :(

I know this isn't a laughing matter, but I giggled in spite of myself at the way this sentence was worded:
"He wouldn't say how Thompson died but said several aggressive animals were near his body when deputies arrived and had to be shot." 

That sentence could have used some editing.

This whole incident raises a LOT of questions.  It has the mark of PETA and the ALF all over it.  This is what they DO.  Particularly since they and H$U$ have been pushing HARD for an anti-exotic pets bill in Ohio.  This sort of "incident" just has a way of happening just where and when the Animal Rights industry is pushing for some law or other.
It is FAR from an open and shut case  :(
Carol
WV

Patti, that is a splendid sentence. It has many unrelated topics about which we will never know anything for sure, but I would assume that if more people carried tranquilizer guns those poor deputies would be alive today.

I wonder if Karen's bear was the shooter.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/kfalconcam/message/16878 (http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/kfalconcam/message/16878)

right, excuse me; I misspoke. If more bears carried tranquilizer guns those deputies would be alive.

Is this going to turn into another one of those debates over the constitutional right to arm bears?

Guns don't kill people. Bears kill people.

 :rofl: :hysterical: :2funny:
Can the humor get any drier (or any funnier)  here?    :hysterical:

no constitutionals with bare arms here in Chicago tonight, that's for sure. we might get frost.
Maybe it's warmer in Ohio

Does a bear take his morning constitutional in the woods?