Lions, tigers escape from zoo, killed
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China.org.cn, October 21, 2011
Police have shot and killed dozens of exotic animals that escaped from a private zoo in Zanesville, Ohio, BBC reported.
![Carcasses lie on the ground at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Ohio on Wednesday after sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals, including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions. Farm owner Terry Thompson opened their cages on Tuesday and then committed suicide. [Shanghai Daily]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20111021/0014222d9850100b0f2406.jpg "Carcasses lie on the ground at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Ohio on Wednesday after sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals, including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions. Farm owner Terry Thompson opened their cages on Tuesday and then committed suicide. [Shanghai Daily]") |
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Carcasses lie on the ground at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Ohio on Wednesday after sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals, including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions. Farm owner Terry Thompson opened their cages on Tuesday and then committed suicide. [Shanghai Daily] |
Sheriff Matt Lutz said he personally gave the order to shoot the escaped animals, including grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, tigers and lions.
The animals' owner, Terry Thompson, was found dead at the zoo, and police believe he killed himself. Lutz said a preliminary investigation suggested Thompson left fences open at the farm. Forty-eight of the 56 animals were then shot dead on the sheriff’s orders.
Animals shot dead: 1 wolf; 6 black bears; 2 grizzly bears; 17 lions; 1 baboon; 3 mountain lions; 18 Bengal tigers.
Officers were ordered to kill the animals instead of trying to bring them down with tranquilizers for fear those hit with darts would escape in the darkness before they dropped and would later regain consciousness.
"There were so many animals running at large that I made the decision that we were not going to have wild animals running loose on our streets," Lutz said. "There was no way of telling which animals would lay down - where these animals would end up."
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