ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Sheriff’s deputies shot nearly 50 wild animals — including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions — in a big-game hunt across the Ohio countryside Wednesday after the owner of an exotic-animal park threw their cages open and committed suicide in what may have been one last act of spite against his neighbors and police.
As homeowners hid indoors, officers armed with rifles fanned out through fields and woods to hunt down an estimated 56 animals set loose from the Muskingum County Animal Farm by owner Terry Thompson before he shot himself to death Tuesday.
After an all-night hunt that extended into Wednesday afternoon, 48 animals were killed. Six others — three leopards, a grizzly bear and two monkeys — were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo. A wolf was later found dead, leaving a monkey as the only animal still on the loose. Those destroyed included six black bears, two grizzlies, a baboon and three mountain lions.
Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo, defended the sheriff’s decision to kill the animals but said the deaths of the Bengal tigers were especially tragic. There are only about 1,400 of the endangered cats left in the world, he said.
“When I heard 18, I was still in disbelief,” Hanna said. “The most magnificent creature in the entire world, the tiger is.”
As the hunt dragged on outside of Zanesville, population 25,000, schools closed in the mostly rural area of farms and widely spaced homes 55 miles east of Columbus. Parents were warned to keep children and pets indoors. And flashing signs along highways told motorists, “Caution exotic animals” and “Stay in vehicle.”
Officers were ordered to kill the animals instead of trying to bring them down with tranquilizers for fear that those hit with darts would escape in the darkness before they fell and would later regain consciousness.
“These animals were on the move; they were showing aggressive behavior,” Sheriff Matt Lutz said. “Once the nightfall hit, our biggest concern was having these animals roaming.”
The animals were buried on Thompson’s property at the request of his distraught wife.
Lutz said at an afternoon news conference that the danger had passed. He said the monkey would probably be shot because it was believed to be carrying a herpes disease.
Lutz would not speculate why Thompson killed himself and why he had left open the cages and fences at his 73-acre preserve, dooming the animals he seemed to love so much. Thompson, 62, had had repeated run-ins with the law and his neighbors. Lutz said the sheriff’s office had received numerous complaints since 2004 about animals escaping onto neighbors’ property, and that Thompson had been charged with animal-related offenses.
Thompson had gotten out of federal prison just last month after serving a year for possessing unregistered guns.
John Ellenberger, a neighbor, speculated Thompson freed the animals to get back at neighbors and police.
“Nobody much cared for him,” Ellenberger said.
Thompson had rescued some of the preserve’s animals and purchased many others, said Columbus Zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters.
It was not immediately clear how Thompson managed to support the preserve and for what purpose it was operated. It was not open to the public.
In the wider animal sanctuary movement, Ohio is known as a state that inadequately regulates exotic animals. It ranks on the bottom with Missouri, Nevada and Oklahoma among 25 states that have few — or any — regulations on the keeping of wild animals, according to a 2009 report by the Humane Society of America.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
